First Time at Church

Abigail was at church for the first time on Wednesday night. This is our Thanskgiving Eve service where several in our congregation share what they are thankful for. It is always a blessing to hear what God is doing in other's lives. We serve an amazing God and hearing how he has blessed others just makes Him more amazing.

This year, I was asked to share about our adoption trip. I wrote up a short essay and surprised myself by speaking calmly and clearly in front of all those people. I'll share that essay here as well:

Ni Hao... Hello.

Now you know a large part of my Chinese vocabulary.

We just returned from a trip to China this past Saturday. All four of us went to China, all five of us came back. Our newest family member, Abigail, is nine years old. It is really nice to have her back before Thanksgiving, because now we have so much more to be thankful for.

We thank God first of all for an amazing trip. We spent three days in Beijing, six days in Xi'an, six days in Guangzhou, and a day in Hong Kong. We traveled by plane, train, boat, bus, taxi, van, golf cart, gondola, rickshaw, toboggan, and on foot. I could show you our pictures, but there are nine hundred fifty of them and I might run over my allotted time. Through this all, God kept us safe and on schedule. He placed people in our path who took care of us through the entire trip. Our guide in Beijing was a believer. We met up with other believing families in Guangzhou whom we became friends with, one of whom lives right around here in Zeeland. We thank God for Mr. Gao and the other drivers that ferried us around. They were extremely skilled and navigated the city streets without a single mishap. Those of you that have been to China know that is no small feat.

He carried us through two of our family members becoming violently ill. These illnesses did not affect our schedule in any way.

He carried us through an extremely difficult and stressful day when we met our daughter for the first time. It was probably one of the most difficult days of our lives. Here was a scared little girl who would not even look at us when we first met her. Even though she knew we were the ones she had seen in the pictures we sent her, she refused to come near us, and when I finally got her on my lap, she was stiff as a board and wanted to get off right away. She sobbed miserably when it came time to leave her former caregivers and go with us to our hotel room. It was a heartbreaking scene.

We are also very thankful for the next day. Some of her sunny personality began to shine through and we saw her beautiful smile for the first time. Since that time, she has been adjusting well. She laughs easily, smiles easily, sleeps well, eats well and even likes to sit on my lap. She loves to be on the go and seems to have a strong desire to learn.

We also recognize both the privilege and the responsibility to share Christ with our new daughter. Since we were bringing her home shortly before Christmas, Deb asked her through our interpreter what she thought Christmas was all about. Abigail described a big man with a bag on his back and gifts. Deb described back to her the true meaning of Christmas; how the sacrifices done by the emperors and other sacrifices by other people all over the world were not enough to erase the bad things we had done, how God sent his own Son to be the final sacrifice. We celebrate his coming at Christmas and give gifts to represent his gift to us. When she was done translating all this to Chinese for Abigail, our interpreter told us, "Wow, I learned some new things today."

Abigail may not understand all the things that were said at that time, but we are thankful that she is now part of our family and will be able to hear it again and again. We are confident that he who began a good work in this little nine-year-old will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

We are very thankful for our friends at GCC who upheld us in prayer during our trip. This is a giant step for us. We are way outside our comfort zones and we are thankful for all the thoughtful gestures that many of you have done during this process that have provided support for us.

When we made the decision to adopt over a year ago, we really had no idea what the outcome would be. All we had were a small picture and a medical report. Nothing else. We've seen both the best and worst of outcomes in other adoptions. Adopting an older child adds more uncertainty to the mix, so it was truly a step into the unknown.

Now that we are home again we still have no idea what the future holds. Only God knows and we are thankful that the future is firmly in His hands. Each day for us brings new discoveries of what she is like. Some of those are pleasant surprises, some are areas that need to be worked on.

As an example, the morning after she came home, she was investigating this new home of hers when she came dashing out of the family room to where I was. "Baba, ka", she said, (Daddy, look!) and pulled me by the hand into the family room. With wonder in her eyes she pointed to what had excited her. She was just so amazed and enthralled that we actually had a piano in our home. She sat down later and plinked out a couple tunes, songs she had been taught by her foster sister in China, complete with singing the lyrics in Chinese. It looks like piano lessons may be in her future.

We appreciate your prayers as we continue this journey and we give thanks to God for Abigail, for our family, for our good friends at GCC, and most of all, for our adoption into the family of God.

Xie Xie ... Thank you.

When this was done, I motioned to Abigail, and she readily came up to the podium. I picked her up and was able to introduce her to the congregation. She beamed to a large room full of complete strangers.

Afterward, Abigail was a bit overwhelmed by the small crowd of little girls introducing themselves to her. Many of them are also Chinese adoptees so she should eventually feel right at home. She warmed up to them quickly and soon they were chasing each other around.

A little while later, she was on the floor, screaming in pain. She must have tripped and fell. She usually tolerates pain and we rarely hear her cry, so this must have been bad. We took her home, looked at the foot, and decided to put her in bed and check it in the morning.

We spent most of Thanksgiving morning in the St. Mary's Urgent Care Center. It wasn't all that busy, so we got in right away. This just means we wait in the examination room rather than the waiting room. Abigail seems very used to all the activity and sat very still for the x-rays. She seemed to enjoy mimicking all the beeps and noises that the machine made.

After another interminable wait, the doctor came back in and told us it wasn't broken. Another thing to be thankful for. It was only a bad sprain. She is now putting weight on it although she favors it somewhat.

It doesn't seem to slow her down. When she does't want to put weight on it, she just hops around the house on one foot.

She was excited to go to grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner. I think part of the excitement is riding in the car. She was amazed that we could actually drive a car. She was doubly amazed when we drove to Grandma's house, and David drove the car. Imagine that, this crazy family I find myself in, and everyone drives!