Number Six

Well...Where to start? We actually first saw Sam's photo back when God asked us to adopt for the second time. Leslie had shown me his photo and we just didn't think he was the one. Of course at that time, God led us to Claire. I'm sure most of you reading this know her story and know that she really need to get out of China as she was so neglected. Looking back, knowing that we are now going to bring home Sam as well, we can easily say that Claire needed to be the priority and her life literally depended on it. So now we flash back to a couple of months ago and Leslie comes across Sam's photo on a shared list. It really spoke to both of us and we were both kind of shocked and saddened that he hadn't been adopted yet. This started a series of conversations between the two of us. Mostly about money and logistics. Where would we put all of our kids? How could we afford it? That was not directed at the cost of the adoption itself. We have seen God provide that money twice before. The concerns were, we have one getting ready to need a car, and one getting ready to head to college, and activities for all and grocery money, and wedding money, and retirement money. All the life things that are to come that you can't get grants for or hold fund raisers for. We both felt that if God was asking us to adopt again, that He would also take care of that stuff. So here we are then. The million dollar question...Is God asking us to adopt again? We are definitely willing but that doesn't mean that we are called by God to adopt. If God isn't calling us, this was too big of a step to take and try to figure it out on our own. That is kind of where we left it...Is God calling us. Several weeks later, I felt God ask me to do a fast and He laid it on my heart as to what I was to fast from. He had several things that He wanted me to pray about during this fast one of which was Sam. I didn't tell anyone even Leslie. I heard pretty quickly that Sam was our son. Eventually, Leslie picked up on my fast and I shared with her some of the details. I think she was kind of shocked. She instantly wanted to know what I heard in regards to Sam. I told her "I think he is our son". God had not yet revealed this to Leslie and she was still feeling reluctant to take on a sixth child. Part of what she was dealing with was guilt and a desire to help ease our financial burden. I've told her for years that by God's design, I am the provider and her responsibility is to be home with the children. She made an attempt, yet again. Our history of her attempts to help provide is fairly comical. God always shuts them down shortly after they get started and this one met with the same fate as all of the others. Then a dear friend shared with her that God has blessed and equipped me to provide for our family and that she does not need to bear that burden. This was so enlightening and freeing to her. So with that behind us, she still wasn't fully on board with another adoption. She told me, "you heard God say he is ours, so I guess we need to do it". I said yes, I did hear that, but as part of the confirmation that I heard God correctly, I need you to hear from God and be on board with it. Several days later, she went to look for Sam's file again and it was gone from the shared list. It was at this point that God stared working on her. She felt a sadness come across her when she could no longer find his file. She started making some calls to see if there was any way to track it down. She called an adoption agency that our friends had used for their adoptions. What she found out was that one of three things happened. 1)Sam has been matched with a family 2)An agency had picked up his file or 3)His file had been returned to China (which means that he may not get another shot at adoption or at least he wouldn't anytime soon). This about the time that she called me to tell me what had been going on. I said to her "I know what I heard, but I need you to get praying about it and be on the same page". If I'm being honest, I was kind of frustrated that she had been dragging her feet and not praying about Sam, but I wasn't about to pressure her. She was so patient with me the first time around as I was the one dragging my feet. So, as she did then, I patiently waited for God to convince her as He had me. She then said a prayer and asked God, "If Sam is ours, please let them find his file and if he is not, then just shut the door on this opportunity". She made some calls to all our her incredible prayer warrior friends and her mother. Almost every single one said "He is yours! We've known it for a long time." This is when God started working on her. She asked "how come everyone around me knew but I did not?" I don't have an answer for that other than God's timing is perfect...never early...never late. Maybe a day or so later, we got the phone call. They found Sam's file. It had been picked up by another agency, so there is still hope. In order for China to pull the file back from that agency and send it to our new agency, we had to commit to taking him. Next step of faith...we have never seen his file. All we know about him is what we learned from other people on adoption blogs. So now what? FAITH! God said go, so we go! They sent us some paperwork. We printed it, signed it saying we would take him and sent it back. We now have the ball rolling and we both have an incredible peace about it. A peace that exceeds all understanding. Within a few days, we did receive his file and some new pictures. Leslie sent it off to a cardiologist and Children's Mercy and then had a couple of really good phone conversations with him. He concurred that if everything is as the paperwork states, there should be no problems or concerns. We will possibly need some maintenance surgeries, but there is no reason to expect that he couldn't live a "normal" life. God just keeps adding to our story! Stretching us and growing us along the way. So, that brings us to the title of the blog...And Sam makes six.