Beginnings and blessings

Dear Emma,

This is for you and our family and friends. Someday it will be for you to read, a chronicling of how we loved and longed for you while we waited to bring you home. And now it is so we can share with you, even from afar, and the people who already love you can participate in your homecoming and home-waiting.

Oh, how you are loved.

You do not know us, except in the ways God has made us known to your heart. And while we haven’t met you in person, we know you from the heart, too. Your pictures give us clues to what you look like and what your personality might be like. There is a lot we don’t know about each other.

But in reality, there is much more we do know. Here is what we know about you:
• You belong to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
• You are a child of God.
• You are a treasured and beloved daughter of Him.
• Before even the very foundations of the world God had you in His mind and knew you would be.
• The very hairs on your head are known and numbered by God.
• You were knit together in great love in your mother’s womb. God was with you then and you knew Him by the Holy Spirit who was with you, loving and encouraging you as you grew.
• The days and length and breadth of your life are known by a God who adores you and authored a role for you in His great rescue and redemption plan.
• You are important and you matter. Your life counts because God says so.
• You are loved just because you are you, not because of what you do or what you accomplish. And this is God’s promise to you.
• You belong to God, and He has graciously lavished His love on us by giving us to you and you to us.
• You have a destiny in Christ.
• There is nowhere you can go where God is not with you.
• There is nothing that can happen to take you away from Him.
• You are beautiful: to God and to us.
• You have worth and dignity.
• God has seen your tears and heard your cries and He was with you in the lonely sad days. Not only has He seen them, He has counted and held your tears and ached with you. He has come in power to comfort and uphold you when you felt alone.
• God rejoices over you! He dances and delights in His little girl who brings Him great and everlasting joy. Your giggles bless Him and He smiles with you. He is filled to the fullest with joy because of you.
• Your Lord is your Jehovah rapha- your God who heals. He guided the hands of your surgeons and He worked in your body to help you live, breathe and thrive. He has healed and He has more healing in store for you, Emma Kate!
• Your Father is mighty to save. He wages great battles and moves mountains on your behalf.
• You are a dream come true for us, and the best “surprise” God authored for us.
• We cannot wait to know you in person and bring you home to grow and live with us.
• We love you- for always and forever.

And here is what we see when we gaze at your pictures:
• You are lovely, breathtakingly beautiful: physically and your spirit.
• You sparkle
• Joy radiates from you
• There is a sweetness about you
• Your countenance speaks of knowing love
• The way you reach out to join those around you into the photo shows us a girl who cares for others and is connected to them emotionally in friendship and love.
• You shine with a playfulness and gladness of life
• Your orphanage family loves you and you matter to them
• You are cared for
• You are learning and growing
• You have a playground to play on and must like the swings
• There are friends you live with, play with, learn with and care about.

• You are tucked away in a safe haven of sorts
• You are our treasure, and our precious one. We long for you, all of us!


Your story is a love story of a God who pursues, redeems, and make us each His own. From the very moment of your creation, God has been with you, caring for you, loving you, helping and sustaining you. And we are blessed to be a part of this. And we stand in awe of the many ways we have glimpsed of God’s strong, courageous, faithful care of you, Jiang Yu Xiao, His beloved, precious daughter.


The pages and entries that follow will chronicle our journey to meet you and bring you home. We hope that they serve as “stones”, markers as in Joshua of God’s faithfulness and lovingkindness to our family and toward you.

Emma, our treasure, God blesses and keeps you. God makes His face to shine upon you. God is gracious toward you. He turns His face to you and gives you peace. Bless you in Jesus name, our dear sweet girl.