Two Years with Isaac

I have to begin my day of thanks, with a special prayer and thank you to the woman who gave Isaac life. I pray that she will learn about Jesus and accept him as her Savior so that we can meet in heaven and celebrate Isaac's life in eternity with Jesus. I can't imagine the emotions she went through as she carried him and then had to leave him. I can only speculate the circumstances that caused her to choose an adoption plan for him, but I pray that God brings comfort and peace to her heart. I pray that He will give her a vision of what he looks like since his cleft lip has been repaired and that she has a picture of his beautiful face in her mind. I hope that in her dreams she can see him laugh and love and that she can be comforted knowing that her son has found love and acceptance with a forever family. How heart wrenching to not know, but I pray that the Lord will give her a knowing so that she will know that God has a plan for each of our lives.

I pray that the words of Jeremiah 29:11 will ring true in her heart "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,' declares the Lord." There are certain times I pray for this special woman, Isaac's China Mama. I continually pray that she will know the Lord, and I ask that He will rise up workers for His fields. I know that all mothers choosing adoption face a certain sense of loss, but I think for some it is harder. In America we have options and mothers can choose to select the family for their child and they can choose to keep in touch with that family. Some mothers don't have that option. They can't follow up on their children to see what happened. They choose adoption for many reasons and then they hope.

They hope for a better life. They hope for medical care. They hope for a chance to thrive and succeed. They hope their child will find a home in an adoptive family. They hope, but they never know. They hope because they know that some children never find a home. Some children wait, and wait. And these mothers, these fathers, who for whatever reason can not keep their child to raise as their own hope for the best knowing that it is quite possible that this child that they loved for nine months as they grew in their womb just might be among the unlucky who never finds a home. And they wonder, was it worth it? Could I have been what my child needed? Could we have gotten the medical care my child needed? Is my child being loved? And they never know. My heart breaks for these children and for their families. And I pray that Isaac's mom will know. And I pray that Aryn's mom will know. And I pray that God will move in the hearts of more people to bring children into their homes to be part of their forever families. We don't have to travel the world to add a forever child. They are here in our city, our state, our nation. God moved my heart to China, but He could call your heart to your hometown.

Two years ago we pulled up to the Adoption Registry Center of Guangdong Province at the same time the car from the Dongguan CWI pulled up with Isaac and another little girl. Both children were being welcomed by American families. I wish that we had learned the little girl's name, I know that she was adopted by a family in Michigan. It was so exciting to hear, "There is your son!"Where!? Where!? We were not allowed to touch him, if you can imagine the agony of that! But we were allowed to take his picture as he hugged onto his Ayi! What a handsome little guy! We were so excited to see that they had dressed him in blue because all of the pictures we had received the ayis had dressed our little man in pink.He's been a snuggle bug right from the start! In fact when Erin from Harrah's AIM read his file to me and I heard that he liked to snuggle, I told her to lock his file! It took Pepper less than a month to wrap Isaac around her paw and now the two are quite the pair!

Isaac's first visit to Walt Disney World was on November 24, 2008. He slept through his first ride on Dumbo! Today he LOVES to visit Mickey Mouse and believes that Ye Ye holds the keys to the kingdom. I guess he does since we are blessed that Ye Ye has worked for Disney for over 20 years and we are able to visit Mickey Mouse a lot! :o)

A favorite activity is watching football with Daddy. One of our first gifts was for this cute little outfit. Last weekend Isaac sat down in front of the TV and said, "I like that." Daddy was thrilled because Daddy LOVES football and hopes that Isaac will love watching football with him for many years to come!On Saturday we went to EPCOT to take pictures to celebrate two years as a forever family. Unfortunately the experience went better in my head and if I had followed Isaac's lead we may have gotten some wonderful pictures to go with happy memories. After all the celebration was about our love and it really didn't matter if I had the ideal picture to commemorate the event. I only post this so that in the future I can look back and remember the experience and learn from it. What mattered was that we came together as a family to celebrate our love. What didn't matter was the perfect picture, which I didn't get anyways. Isaac was upset and the pictures make me a little sad.

Actually the highlight of Isaac's day had absolutely nothing to do with China or celebrating his culture which is why we chose EPCOT. They do have a great place to meet and greet the characters and this was definitely Isaac's favorite part of the day. We counted down the days until we finally got to visit Mickey Mouse. He wanted to take the count down sheet, but we forgot it in the car. We did remember to bring the autograph book and Isaac bounced with excitement as he waited for his turn with the different characters. Now this is what I will remember of our forever family celebration!

Isaac's countdown to Mickey Mouse!

Waiting our turn!

Wow! Mickey Mouse!!!

Pluto is a pretty cool dog! Mama loves Pluto because he came to visit Isaac in the hospital when he had his palate surgery.

I could not believe how excited Isaac was to meet Minnie Mouse! He danced and danced around the little waiting area. I actually think this is one of the best pictures of the day!

Donald Duck didn't excite him as much as some of the other characters. He had fun watching Donald interact with the children ahead of him, but when it came down to it, he was not into it. I wonder if Donald gets any time on the Disney Channel or if he needs to contact his publicist??

Last, but not least Goofy! It was nice to meet you Goofy! Isaac is a pretty Goofy dude and if the pediatrician is right he'll be tall enough to play Goofy at Disney when he's in high school or college. With his personality I can see him making kids and adults day as they see Goofy come to life.


However, to every experience we can take something good. Next year I know to take time to celebrate and that if we don't get a picture, it's OK. The important thing is to love. In my heart I knew that, but sadly it didn't make it into my control freak, let's have a picture to commemorate this day mind. Well I take that back, on Sunday we went to our favorite Chinese restaurant to celebrate with the whole family: Ye Ye, Nai Nai, Uncle Joe, Mama, Daddy, and Isaac. We had a lovely lunch and I didn't interrupt the festivities to mess with the camera so, "lesson learned!" We had an immediate success and I didn't have to wait a whole year to try it out...

"You are the helper of the fatherless. LORD, you have heard the desire of the humble; You will prepare their heart; You will cause Your ear to hear, to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, That the man of the earth may oppress no more." Psalm 10:14, 17-18