Saturday, January 30, 2010

Immeasurably More

I thought it only appropriate for my first post to introduce and explain the title and purpose of this new blog. I'm generally not one to write down thoughts or feelings for myself, much less for others to read. However I have been inspired to step out of my comfort zone by the love of a little boy. Although I have never laid eyes on his precious face, or physically touched his sweet hand, I am completely in love with this child. I was in love with him well before I knew his name, age, or physical characteristics. I fell in love the night I told my husband that I wanted to go back to China, after years of being convicted that our family was complete and perfect. It was his fault for asking me if I ever secretly wished to return to China and add to our family. I really had not considered the idea seriously, but his question led my heart right where God wanted it to go. From that moment, I knew our family was not complete, and somewhere in China was the missing piece of the Rogers' family. Eddie did not feel the same right away, and I encouraged him to pray and seek out his feelings on the subject. It took about 2 weeks, and upon arriving home after work one night, I found a rose on my pillow with a note that said "let's go to China". We have never looked back. I had already requested the application from our agency, of course, secretly hoping he would come around. After filling out the application, and selecting girl as the obvious choice from China, I was prepared to mail it the agency and get the ball rolling. I dropped my daughter Cambrie off at pre-school that morning and met a very adorable classmate of hers named Max. You see, Max was adopted from Korea, and all of a sudden my eyes were opened to the possiblity of another son. In the parking lot of the post office, I quickly changed our application to "boy or girl", with a prayer that acknowledged God already knew who he/she was, and that I would trust His plan for our family. Although paperwork was somewhat easier this time around, I had less free time to complete it than when we adopted Cambrie. We did get everything completed in December, and then waited on USCIS (immigration). On January 21, in my son's elementary school gym at his basketball practice, I received a call from Melissa at our agency. I knew before she said anything that we were parents again. She told me that she had a referral for us to consider, and that we had less than 48 hours to talk to a doctor and make a decision. "It's a little boy who will turn 2 in May. He has a repaired cleft lip, and also a ceft palate. The paperwork is unclear as to whether or not it has been repaired. So you need to consider that he will likely require at least one surgery and speech therapy when you return. His file will not be on this shared referral list long, so if you want me to lock him, I need to know now." I didn't even have to think about it. This was our son. Whatever he needed, we would see to it that he got. Less than 24 hours later we had seen the pediatrician, been advised on his possible future therapy, and accepted his referral with thankful hearts to God who had given us the most amazing gift of being his parents. Which brings me to the title of our blog. Immeasurably More! Beyond what we can ask or imagine! I never truly apprecitated this scripture until the few days following our referral call. We have treasured friends who we met on our first trip to China to get our sweet Cambrie. They were adopting their first daughter Lucy. We've kept in touch over the last 4 years, and we recently followed their journey to bring their second daughter Rita home. When we received our referral, we discovered that our son was in Xi'an, the same city as Rita. Teresa immediatly had wondered if our son was in the same foster home as Rita because this home arranges surgeries for orphans in need. I checked their website and looked at the photos of all the sweet babies. None seemed to be our son, but really not a surprise with the millions of orphans in China, what are the chances?!. Shouldn't have limited God. As I scrolled down the blog of the woman who runs the home, I saw one of our son's referral pictures. I screamed at Eddie to come see the computer. We couldn't believe that we found him. I immediately let Teresa know he was there. She had already contacted the director, Amanda about him, and received updated pictures of him from her. Amanda also let us know that he just recently had his palate surgery, and that he was happy and healthy. Now, if you know anything about Chinese adoptions, most parents are fortunate to receive 2-3 photos of your child, and little to no history of his/her life. We are blessed to have information on him since he came to the foster home at 3 months. Amanda is happy to send updated photos of him and even Skype with us. Of course the greatest blessing is the peace of mind we have knowing he is being cared for, nurtured, and loved on a daily basis. Also on this same day we received our approval from USCIS, only 6 days after our fingerprint appointment. Immeasurably more than all we could have asked or imagined! Sorry for the long blog, but I figured background was necessary for understanding our journey to bring home Aiden Thomas Rogers. We can't wait to hold you sweet boy.

Kelly