There are many days where I simply stand in awe of God’s provision; there are even more when I fall on my knees in reverence and total submission.  Today was an experience of the latter.

I am still shaking, six hours later, and I know I will have a complete emotional meltdown by the end of typing this post.  I want to start by saying that so many times on this trip we have witnessed what an awesome God we serve.  Let me give you an example before I recount the day’s events.  When we were at the Beijing zoo a few days ago, a woman and her small daughter were staring over at our group. Lexie heard them say “That baby looks just like baby ----!“  Lexie realized they were saying Kate’s Chinese name, so she responded, “It IS baby ----!”  It turns out they live next to the Beijing CWI and knew Kate very well.  Her daughter often enjoyed playing with her!  Fast forward to our last day in Beijing.  Kate’s family had been previously told Kate was not in foster care, but they received a call saying that her foster family would like to take them to dinner before they left Beijing!!!  The woman at the zoo told them she had seen Kate and her new family at the zoo.  The CWI had told the foster family that Kate’s family had already left, but now they knew differently!!!  This lucky family got to spend the evening with the wonderful people who had cared for their daughter (and OBVIOUSLY loved her) after her heart surgery.  What provision!  God used Lexie and her ability to speak Chinese as a vessel to connect to families- to do His work.  If you take a moment to pause and think about all of the things that had to come together, each individually orchestrated at precisely the right moment…do you also feel weak in the knees?

Moving on to today…  This morning we met a family at breakfast who has 7 children; they are here adopting their 5^th.  (Mind you they didn’t bring the other children along).   They home-school, and are adopting a child with Thal (like Selah).  We had much to talk about!  During the course of our conversation we mentioned we were about to leave for Anaia’s medical exam, our concerns and hope that theyb would not disrobe her and discover anything suspicious.  They started talking about their experience the day before.  To our horror, we discovered that the male physician completely disrobed the menstruating 13 year old girl in front of all of the families in the group (including the dads) and proceeded with the examination.  I immediately excused myself and went out to find the other older adoptive family and our guide.  God gave us this amazing head’s up and we were able to spare our children this utter humiliation.  I sat this afternoon and cried over the poor girl who endured that the day before.  I was told she is still shaken up and has spent a great deal of time in their hotel room.  My mind will not allow itself to even imagine what that havoc that could have wreaked on the 13 year old in our group.  No chance encounters…instead, a perfectly orchestrated symphony…

Last night I talked with our guide Elvin about Anaia’s unidentified special needs.  I was growing concerned about the medical exam today.  He shared my concerns and said that we could be delayed a long time due to the holidays. (an extra week and a half).  We have an amazing group who immediately started praying over us.  After hearing how they completely disrobed the girl yesterday- quite frankly, I was terrified.  Anaia’s spinal abnormalities are easy to spot.  Our friends completely blanketed Anaia in prayer.  They prayed for the hands and eyes of the physicians to be numb and blinded.  I am shaking terribly as I type this…  We went into the physical examination room and the doctor spent some time working with Anaia’s arms (her identified SN).  Then she started feeling around her shoulders and upper body.  I couldn’t breathe.  I just kept playing this song again and again in my head:

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise Him all creatures here below

Praise Him above the heavenly hosts

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

I later found out that this same verse was resounding in Dave’s ears as well, and he proclaimed it several times to our friends…I for one have not sang that song in a long time.  God was speaking  this message into both of our hearts at the same time.

Friends, the physician started feeling down Anaia’s spine…I cried out to God and He immediately answered.  He stopped her hands at the precise point Anaia’s spine starts to curve.  The precise point, I kid you not.  She stated, “Hao.”  (Good.)  and didn’t touch her spine again.  (Her spine curves sideways at her shoulder blades and then deeply into her body at the base.)

Next she had Anaia lay on her back.  She lifted up her shirt a bit, but Anaia protested, so no true examination of her chest.  Then she started to undo her shorts.  I purposely put shorts on her today that are very difficult to remove.  There is a cord with a squeeze latch that you use to tighten them.  Anaia likes things really tight at her waist so I knew she would pull it in nice and snug.  All of the sudden, Anaia started whining, squirming and kicking.  Both the doctor and I were telling her not to worry, but she wouldn’t relent.  So, the woman got a few second’s look at her twisting abdomen and gave up!  My friend Terri reminded me that God uses everything- even the ill-tempers of our children to His purpose.  We were not out of the woods yet; we had one more hurdle to climb.  Anaia had a slight reaction to the TB test that had been done in Beijing so they wanted to do a chest x-ray.  We sat and waited FOREVER once again.  (We were there for over 3 hours.)  This gave us all time to sit together and pray again.  This one was the most frightening, as there is no way to cover up spinal issues on an x-ray.  Terri had a great idea- we should ask that they cover her lower back with a lead apron to protect her ovaries.  The family before us asked, but were denied.  Kate had to have 2 x-rays- one frontal and one side…I thought I was going to keel over, it’s a good thing I was sitting with Anaia clinging to me as she had just endured 3 immunizations and was pretty upset.  I have to mention that she asked if I would hold her tight and if Dave would also hold her hand.  She asked me again and again to squeeze her tight as she sat pressed up against me…after I carried her out and she just buried herself in my chest and rested in my arms.  We explained that we didn’t want to make her do this, but she needed to in order to come to America- that is what made her calm down a bit and cooperate…she is very excited to come home!  When it was our turn for the x-ray, I asked for the apron and my request was miraculously granted.  I put it on her as high as I could and walked out of the room humming my song…  The technician took the frontal x-ray.  Her sideways curvature showed up clearly on the screen- like a backwards letter “C” right before our eyes.  My heart fell to me  toes and I looked down at the desk to see if he was looking at her paperwork.  IT WAS NOT SITTING THERE!  It was still is Elvin’s hands!!!  He looked at her lungs quickly and cleared us to leave.  End of story.  God provided precisely what we prayed for.  Blinded yes and numb hands.  My knees were shaking as we walked out of the building.  God’s love rained down on us today in a profound way.  Our little group gathered outside of the building and stood in a circle to pray a prayer of thanksgiving.  We all witnessed another miracle of provision on this journey and we wanted to pause and give God the glory.  We were going to head back to our hotel for some noodles in our room, but we decided to celebrate at Lucy’s instead…this day was definitely one to celebrate!!!

While we were waiting for our food at Lucy’s, I gave Anaia a pen and told her she could draw on the back of her placemat- she is very antsy waiting anywhere.  She drew a tree and then 8 hearts.  Inside each heart she wrote one of our names.  When she was finished, she asked in Chinese, “Nimen shi bu shi wo yongyuan de jia? Ni shi bus hi wo yongyuan de mama, ta shi bu shi wo yongyuan de baba?  Tamen shi wo yongyuan de jiemei?”  (You are my forever family, correct?  You are my forever mama?  He is my forever daddy?  They are my forever sisters?)  She repeated this several times as I continued to affirm what she was saying, adding in that we would love her forever.  She was simply GLOWING as she responded that she would love us forever too.  I then drew a heart on my placemat and wrote her name and mama in it.  She asked me to write everyone’s name in the heart together and she then paraded around the tables showing everyone and telling them that I drew us all together in the same heart.

When we returned from Lucy’s we were greeted by ZhangMei and her fiancé, HaiMing (Charming). J (ZhangMei is the college student who lived with us this past school year.)  We spent a couple of hours walking around Shamian with them, feeling like we were trapped in a sauna! J  The girls got pretty cranky from the heat, so we headed back to the hotel for a short swim before dinner.  Anaia now LOVES the water and is so proud of herself floating around in her ring.  Nina coaxed Mia in the water for the first time and pulled her around until she got comfortable.  Then she handed her off to her father and the 2 of them enjoyed a little bonding time that was wonderful to see.  We all went back to the pool after dinner and enjoyed an evening swim.  At the pool, I met 2 new families.  Both families adopted children from the Beijing CWI,  through the HOPE project with Great Wall.  I chatted with the first family who adopted an adorable 3 year old girl.  After they left, I stood up and another child called out to me from the water in Chinese.  I responded to her and her mother smiled and said, “Thank you she only speaks Chinese.”  I introduced her to Sophia and then started chatting with the parents.  She was also from the HOPE project and Great Wall.  During the course of our conversation the little girl, 7 years old, got up out of the water.  I could not believe my eyes.  She has KTS/Lymphademia like a dear friend of mine’s daughter back home!  (This is an extremely rare condition- unfortunately Cheryl, they cut open her foot at the base of each toe and tried to drain the fluid.  Her toes now are fairly black.)   Neither of us had pen and paper, but we are going to meet tomorrow so I can get her contact information.  She really wants to connect with a family dealing with this same condition and hear about what can be done to help their new, sweet girl.  Yet again, He placed just the right person in just the right place at just the right time.  How many people know ANYTHING about this condition let alone someone who is having success in treating it????  Again, my knees buckled as I realized just how HUGE the God I serve is.  It is beyond comprehension.  Realize friends that every encounter, every experience, every day has a higher purpose.  Most we will never recognize in this life…every once in a while God opens our eyes and allows us to see His amazing power so that we can glorify Him.  As our friends prayed today, He cares for each little lamb, so that none will be lost.  My words here do not do justice to what we all experienced today.  No means on this earth could possibly describe the feeling of being lifted up in this way.  I wish that every person reading this could have been standing inside this little clinic in China witnessing the profound intervention of Christ in our daughter’s life today.  God has revealed himself in different ways to us each time we have entered China.  This time, He made me fall down on my knees in total reverence and complete awe in a bone rattling sort of way.

Please continue to pray over us.  Anaia has some orphanage behaviors that are simply exhausting.  It takes all of our strength every day to combat them and keep the other girls from completely melting down in frustration.  We all understand what is going on and why she is the way she is- but it really hard on all of us at times.  Michela and Lexie have been a great help with Nina, Sophia, and Selah.  We can’t leave Anaia under their watch however; as she doesn’t respect their authority one bit.  Also, pray over Anaia’s medical needs.  Pray that things will be correctable and not affect her future.  We have seen God’s hand directing everything here and trust that He will orchestrate everything according to His will when we return.

Existing among miracles here in Guangzhou…ping an. (Peace)