A few days ago we learned a bit about Michael's father, Chris. Chris was our guide in Emma's province. Another family with our adoption agency mentioned that Chris grew up in an orphanage. Jim and Michael talked about Chris' story on the car ride, and I want to record it here to remember.
Chris' parents were killed in the Cultural Revolution. Chris was about 9 years old, and had two younger sisters who were 6 and 8 (about). The government sent them all to live in an orphanage. He was never adopted and completed his "growing up" there. At some point the government sent him to university, as "reparation". I'm not sure if the reparation was for killing his parents, sending him to an orphanage, or some combination of that. But Chris received a university degree. At some point he began to teach English, and had his students volunteering in the orphanages. This all happened before international adoption opened up in China. When China began to allow foreigners to adopt, Chris was uniquely positioned to help children get to their families. He spoke English well, and had a huge heart for the orphan. He still does.
His son Michael told Jim this information in a fairly dispassionate narrative voice. It was like a factual account, and he didn't say how he or how they feel about this. We feel privileged to know this part of Chris' story.
I asked Michael about all of the families we saw at the grocery store and shopping mall the other day with two children. He told us that if both parents in a marriage are only children, they may have two children as a family. In other words, if an only child marries and only child, they may have a child for each of them, thus equaling a family with two children.
When asked what the rule is for those children, he said the hope and belief is that by the time this generation grows up, the One Child Law will no longer be in effect.
We have felt that we were called to do something during a window of time. The Lord has saved a remnant of children from China's orphanages. Each year from the US about 7,000 children are adopted (at least that is the number I have read...it may be different now). If there are over 3 million children living in orphanages in China, that number represents a remnant.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. James 1:27
I remember one time someone wondered out loud why so many families from America with all boys keep going over to China to get "their girl". Our reason for adoption was never to "get a daughter". We adopted because it was a call on our family. That comment was meant scornfully, and yet I saw something so beautiful in it. I didn't say this then, but will write now:
God gave us all boys, and we welcome with joy the blessing of a girl/s. What if His hand is in it, not our human need for something more? What if our boys helped us hear his call in some way that we would not have otherwise? When something is meant for evil (like scores of parents abandoning their children either by force or choice to orphanages), the Lord is the KING of turning the screws and making something entirely beautiful and different out of the tragedy. God brought home girls to scores of families. Some of them like ours, families with sons. And those girls became the treasured pearls of those families. Those cast off, brought home as beloved and precious daughters. The least of those who become something entirely different.
I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18
John isn't speaking of adoption of actual orphans living in orphanages, he is speaking of us. People living like orphans away from their family: their Heavenly Father. The act of adoption is a beautiful and incredible picture of exactly what God does for us. He adopts us through Jesus. We, who were once far off and truly orphaned, are brought home to Him and in Him. We live in His presence as His sons and daughters. Blessed children of the king.
I look at my Emma and my Anna, and I see myself.
I look at my sons, and see God's providential hand on our family.
He intended for us ALL to belong together from BEFORE the very foundation of the world was laid.
Jesus was always meant to be the way back to the Lord.
Adoption was ordained as part of God's magnificent provision for our daughters, and for us, to experience together. The adoption of our beloved daughters, and the adoption of our very selves into the family of God.
Psalm 68:4-6
Sing to God, sing praise to his name,
extol him who rides on the clouds [a]—
his name is the LORD—
and rejoice before him.
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows,
is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families, [b]
he leads forth the prisoners with singing;
Blessed be the name of the Lord. It wasn't just Anna and Emma who were lonely...we were. Our hearts were not complete, even if we thought they were, until they were home with us, and we were home with them. The call goes BOTH WAYS.
Soli deo gloria,
Sara
3 comments:
Beautifully written my sweet friend!
What a wild story about your guides!! It is so neat to see how the Lord has blessed them...are they saved?
Love that. Thank you for writing so expressively about adoption what I have tried to say for years. It is more than a "desire for a child" or a "desire to give a child a home" or wanting son/daughter, whatever. The way you have written it is perfect! (We celebrated Jane's 11th Gotcha Day yesterday- couldn't help but think of you guys the whole time!!)
Your flair for finding the positive, faith-filled, gracious note in life's quirky angles is a blessing to us all. Thank you and thanks some more for your moving words!
Liz Otteson
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