That We May--made aware (1 of 7)

Have you ever felt like a story is so much bigger than yourself?
or like you can't possibly put adequate words to it?
or you're afraid your own words might get in the way of what God's purposes are for the story?
Well, that's where I'm at as I begin.

I could just cry.

Why?

Because, God's timing and the details of this story are overwhelming my soul. I want nothing more than for Him to be Glorified, yet I'm stuck with simple words to describe Him and His story.  Somehow it doesn't seem adequate.  Maybe it's because I don't have all the details and maybe I never will.  Maybe what really matters is for you to see God.  So that is my prayer.

Please please please here me when I say, there is nothing more that my heart desires than for everyone who reads it to see God's Hand and Give Him Glory for each and every step and to see the privileges He lays out before us.

We began our adoption journey in 2006 anticipating a one year wait for a non special needs little girl from China.  After 4 years of waiting (Fall 2010) and realizing the entire program was in transition, God flipped our hearts upside down and we changed our plans and moved into the special needs program.

In hind sight, when that happened everything changed.

I mean everything.

The entire process for our family sped up. We switched our paperwork from 1 to possibly 2 children.
Within 5 months we were home with our Lucas boy (having settled on one child not 2).

here he is taking his first steps on American "soil" in 2011-age 7-

one of the bravest things I've ever seen anyone do

We now know, God was already working on the next thing.  But man would we have been overwhelmed to have that information at that time.  =)  Ever been there?

God was already opening us up to something we had no idea about---
I mean completely clueless about.
Did I say duh duh duh?

Lucas is from Inner Mongolia and is considered special needs (you might not want to tell him that tho).

As soon as we knew he was coming home to us, I started getting myself hooked into Yahoo groups of other adoptive parents to seek support and also connections for him. Within just a few weeks of recieving our referral for Lucas, in Fall of 2010, I found a lovely woman named Margaret who just so happened to have adopted her son from the same orphanage 5 years prior.

(here is a picture of her son - on the swing- and our Lucas --in the black shirt--in the summer of 2010--"someone else" is in this picture too.---note the boy in the white shirt---just remember that face)

During that process, as you recall, I said we were considering bringing 2 kids home.  So, while we were still searching for a 2nd child, I spoke to her about the possibility of finding one at the same orphanage.
She sent me one name -one description of a girl with spina bifida whom they had met in 2010 when they had gone back to visit the orphanage.
Now, I'm rather embarassed to say, I dismissed that email.
But, even though I was clueless, God's plans were unfolding.
Fortunately He doesn't wait for us to get clued in before His plans begin to unfold.
The words Spina Bifida were not in my vocabulary or on the "list" of needs we felt we were ready to handle.

she shakes her head here now in hind sight at how often she misses things that are literally laid right before her feet.

Gone
Dismissed
Never a second thought.
Nothing.
Yet, for some reason, I kept every email from Margaret.

I seriously had completely written it off in my mind.
(kind of embarassing now to say that)
Hold that thought and remember---how soon in this process we were made aware of this little girl.

When we brought Lucas home in April 2011 we knew we had done the right thing in bringing him home without a second child.
He was "very busy".  He had so much to learn.  We had so much to learn.  Not the least of which was learning to communicate in 2 languages when neither of us knew what the other was saying...=)
In fact, we had no intention on going back at that point.  We were "done".

Done is kind of a funny word isn't it??
hahaha
It sounds so final.  But the reality is...God is Never "done" is He?
Don't you think He must chuckle when we say that word...Done...uh huh.

Not long after arriving home and while sifting through some pictures from the orphanage,  Lucas began to mention a friend of his at his orphanage.  (remember that boy in the white shirt in the picture above?)
-God was now making us aware-
As Lucas's English progressed, and we began to make connections, we realized he really had strong ties to a little boy around his age who was still at the orphanage.  He used "the boy's" chinese name, but since we are not very familiar with those, we didn't really understand until several months later who he was talking about.

Again we dismissed it.
For months.
We were certain Lucas would eventually "get over it".
(sorry...that's pathetic, but true)

We did pray for the boy, but we quite easily dismissed Lucas's mention of him as his "brother".

So in hind sight, we were made aware of 2 children without really being conscious of it.  One was a girl mentioned by Margaret.  One was a boy brought to our attention by Lucas.  Both were in the picture from the beginning.  Both were from the same orphanage, same province as Lucas.

(All three children were in this picture taken before we adopted Lucas.  "The girl" is on the far left front row in red.  "The boy" is 2nd from the right in the front row also.  Lucas is on the far right --holding a firetruck of course)

In the meantime....

Back at the ranch...
We had our hands full in 2011.
He challenged our parenting.
We loved him and needed to be available 100%.
He had surgery/amputation (Sept 2011) and new prosthetic legs (January 2012).
His energy level kept us hopping.
His passionate personality kept us challenged.
We even had some financial and personal family challenges during that season.

God had made us aware, whether we were conscious of it or not yet.
But, His timing was still unfolding.

The story continues...
(this is the first of 7 posts in a series)