Three Little Letters

After waiting 134 days since writing a Letter of Intent (LOI) to adopt Lia Faith, we were finally blessed with those three little letters that families adopting children from China know so well - LOA! October 24th, 2008. It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas ... in Beijing!

Here's the story...

We had a travel meeting with Lifeline Children's Services today, so we decided to go a little early and have lunch in Birmingham. So we stopped an hour or so before our appointed time with Lifeline. While we waited for our lunch to arrive, Connie says "Do you think Karla has our LOA?" Now, if you're a participant in this waiting game, you know that Thursdays are usually the days that LOAs arrive and since we didn't get a call yesterday, I answered "Connie, you know Karla knows how much we're anticipating that. If she got it, I'm sure she would have called us. So, no, I don't think she has it."

Another conversation ensued about the wait. Conversations we have had numerous times, with each other, and separately by ourselves, alone with our thoughts. Questioning the process, wondering what had gone wrong, would it be next week since it wasn't this week, there's got to be something we can do, etc... This wouldn't be so difficult if we hadn't already committed to a particular child, whose beautiful face we have been staring at every day since mid-June. What we didn't know was that while we were having lunch, the overnight delivery service was pulled up to the door of Lifeline, unloading a document that would make our year! Karla received our LOA today and shared it with us as soon as we got to Lifeline. It was a great way to start the travel meeting.

The travel meeting consisted of 5 families, at various stages of waiting, and was scheduled many weeks ago. So, for those of you who believe in consequences, maybe you'd think "What a great turn of events." I choose, however, to believe that this is simply God's plan at work. Giving us time to wait and think about and pray about Lia Faith and then having the LOA show up for our signature at the very moment we're to arrive for this travel meeting. For the record, we've signed the LOA and given it back to Lifeline!!!!

In the course of the afternoon, we got to meet some awesome families who are sharing the same journey with us and who encourage us, simply by their presence and the reflection of God that we see in their actions and words relative to their own adoptions. We pray for each of these families and are so thankful that God introduced us to them at this time. We were also greatly blessed by the staff at Lifeline, Karla and Lauren, who lead a discussion of travel topics and bonding issues. We are so thankful we chose Lifeline because of their commitment to Jesus Christ and a biblical foundation for adoption.

Now, there's only one more approval we await from the Chinese - Travel Approval, or affectionately known as TA amongst the inhabitants of the world known as adoption. Hopefully, our TA will come in time for our travel to occur before the end of the year. Thus, the earlier comment about Christmas in Beijing. Please pray with us and for us that TA will arrive on schedule as well so that we may bring Lia Faith home to be with her family and to receive the love she so deserves and the medical attention that she needs! And please pray with us for the other families who wait at various stages of this process, that God would strengthen their resolve and their commitment to His plan of adoption, as he has ours, and that their letters of approval will come in due time.

Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, Lily Grace, and Lia Faith
Green, Party of Five

She Never Said a Word About It ...

Because that's what her husband had asked of her only weeks before. But God wanted me to know, and so He told me. In subtle and not so subtle ways. And He showed me everything I needed to know. Out of respect for privacy and admiration for an American hero, I will not say much more for now, but suffice it to say that God has placed before me an opportunity and a privilege and a responsibility to minister to the family of a fallen American hero. A man who did more for his country in a few short years than I can fully comprehend. By way of comparison, I feel inadequate. Don't get me wrong, I am very honored by what God has accomplished through me and of the family with which He has blessed me. Our God is an awesome God! He has given me the most awesome wife, son, and two daughters that anyone could wish for and has allowed me to work in His plan for adoption and care of His children in very magical ways. He has given me the opportunity to make the lives of children better by focusing on His Word and looking at one day at a time. And to see and understand their hurts and their joys, their wins and their losses. I've been blessed and honored to see what He has done through my own son, Austin, and I have been left in awe by the devotion He has placed in Connie's heart for Lily Grace and Lia Faith, and indeed every orphaned little girl in China.

But in this, I have been humbled. When I met her and her children, something seemed different and when I saw that powerful word "deceased" written next to "Father's name," I understood that this would be a more significant opportunity than I have been privileged to in the past. And then God opened His trophy room and allowed me in for a while to read the rest of the story. To review the list of accomplishments of this American hero, from the valor demonstrated and attained in achievements that earned him the Purple Heart to the instructions he gave his family in the event of his untimely calling is to simply be in awe. The term "bravery" has been rendered incapable and insufficient to describe the honor of this great American hero. The term "courage" is an imposter to what these heroes really possess. Those of us who don't understand simply refer to it as courage, but what heroes such as this live and breathe and walk in every day of their lives is beyond courage. They fight for freedom, mine and Connie's and Austin's and Lily's and Lia's, and yours, while we enjoy the fruits of their labor. They sacrifice and their families sacrifice because of a calling not understood by many, with full understanding that each day could be their last. And oftentimes, we simply take that for granted. Shame on us! And then God, as He is prone to doing, places something in our path that is too big, too significant to simply take for granted. Such was the case on this day. When you look into the eyes of a child and know that child is left fatherless by events they do not control, or even know about, through sacrifices that benefit you, you have no choice but to be humbled. And to weep for the child. And to ask God "What can I do?" Here am I, send me.

The answer is given in John Chapter 21, Verse 16 when Jesus says to Peter (and all disciples to follow) "Take care of my sheep." And again in Verse 17 "Feed my sheep." And later, in James 1:27, a verse written on the hearts of adoptive families around the world: "Religion that God, our Father, accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..." That He would place before me an opportunity such as this at a time such as this is difficult to understand and I hope, I pray, that I can fulfill His hopes and His wishes for ministry in this case. I will do my best, but I will not do this alone, because without Him, I can accomplish nothing, but with Him I can do all things. I have asked the Pastor for his help and he has agreed. And thus, the Army of the Lord arises and stands ready to receive its orders.

Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, Lily Grace, and Lia Faith
Green, Party of Five