HKI Child of the Month

HKI is honored to bring you the stories of some of the remarkable Henan kids and their forever families.  Please contact us if your family has a story to share.

December 2009 - "Life With Judah"

Our love for China and our passion for adoption began in the summer of 2005 on our journey to our daughter, Grace. A year and a half into our wait we learned of the waiting child program and knew that was the direction the Lord was leading us. As we were waiting to be matched with our daughter, we noticed on our agency’s waiting child page all the little boys waiting for families. This surprised us greatly as like many others we had associated China adoption with little girls. In light of this, as well as having a blast raising our two fantastic boys we discussed switching our checklist for “boy only”. Our sons were thrilled with the idea of a new brother, as long as their sister was still coming home. In their eyes their sister was somewhere in China just waiting for them. And that was just the way it was. Grace was there waiting for us.

Two months after we returned home with Grace we were super excited to turn in our checklist for our son. A month later, while at our agency’s reunion, we were online looking at the waiting child page. We didn’t have internet at the house so this was something we rarely did.  A little boy grabbed our attention immediately and we looked up his special need.  Okay, Congenital Hairy Nevus. So, what’s that?  Just a birthmark. Monday morning couldn’t come fast enough! Our excitement was quickly squelched as we were told his file was on hold. Did we want to be put on a list should he become available?  Of course. We spent the rest of the day in a funk. Even though he never was officially ours, our hearts sure didn’t know it. We comforted ourselves with the fact that he had a family, even if it couldn’t be ours and tried (unsuccessfully) to put him out of our minds. To our complete astonishment we received a call three days later that he was ours! WooHoo! We were so excited and began dreaming and praying for our son.

We put the dossier together lightning-quick and hoped we could get him home sooner than the projected year wait. Little did we know how accurate that predication would be. Although we had our end of the paperwork done in less than a month, it took us nearly six months to get our immigration approval. It was 13 months after seeing his face in the photographs for the first time that he was in our arms.

All the pictures of Judah we initially received from the orphanage showed such a forlorn little boy. They were all of him alone, in staged photos, looking like he was on the verge of crying. They were beyond heartbreaking. Our arms just ached to hold him.  Just before we were logged in (February), we received a picture of Judah with the sweetest smile ever imaginable. He had dimples and the cutest heart shaped mouth. And no tears! Praise God!

After the New Year we also had some news to break to our agency. We were pregnant! Elated, we were also concerned of the impact the pregnancy could have on the pending adoption. After 4 miscarriages we didn’t feel the need to spread the news right away. 13 weeks in, however, we felt hopeful our little one would make it and knew we needed to share with the agency that we were expecting. We trusted in God’s sovereignty and went to Him in prayer. With Philippians 4:6 close in our hearts we called our agency and were quickly put at ease. They completely understood, thanked us for telling them so early on, and relieved our greatest concern. Judah was still ours.

We continued to send care packages to Judah throughout the winter and spring. We joked that our two newest blessings were going to come at the same time and boy we were right! Baby Josiah was born in June and our TA came a couple weeks later. Finally after over a year Judah was coming home! 

We are coming up on 3 months together now and the transition has been seamless. There are so many incredible things to share about Judah – we could easily fill a book. His laugh is infectious and he has a grin that lights up his whole face. He is simply captivating. Seeing life through his eyes is such a treat. On our recent beach trip he was screaming and shaking with excitement upon seeing the ocean for the first time. He is so full of joy.  Everything his mama cooks he declares delicious and eats up heartily. He will offer everyone at the table a bite of his food and says the blessing before anyone has a chance.  He is extremely grateful for anything you give him.  Judah’s favorite two words are “thank you”. If you give him a cookie he says “thank you”. If you help him put on his shoes he says “thank you”. If you ask him to clean his room he says “thank you”. J He is by far the best dancer in the house. He plays hard with his older brothers and yet is super gentle to his sister and baby brother.  Communication has not been a problem and everyday his English is improving. He is a stickler for fairness and watches out for all the kiddos. We wonder what we ever did without him. Life with Judah is simply better.