Tonight, we had the opportunity to share "our story" at a Bethany International Adoption dinner. After families are united with their child, Amy (our social worker), always invites them to share their experience at one of the international family gatherings. We went to numerous meetings in the years leading up to adopting Cheng-Yu. As I would listen to families share, I can remembering wondering what it would be like to be in their shoes and feeling like it would never be our turn. But on Saturday, it was...our turn. As I entered the room where families gathered, I was flooded with emotion. I quickly spotted a family that I recognized. They have a 3 year old daughter from China. When I looked into her eyes, I could feel the tears gathering in mine. It is her!!! I had seen this family before, but only twice. The first time I met them, they had just received their referral. They brought the picture to the meeting and passed it around. The mother had already framed the photo and I can still remember the way she held it and gazed at her baby girl. The second time I saw them was shortly after they arrived home from China with this precious little 6 month old girl. They told their story at that meeting. And now 3 years later, I look into her eyes again. What a miracle. I am so overcome with emotion, just at the sight of her. It was almost a surreal experience for me. I watched a dear family sitting in the front of the room with their precious son from India. I can remember talking to them at meetings as they waited on God to lead them to their child. Who knew he would be in India? I could feel God's presence. What I could see around that room was nothing short of a miracle. Many miracles. What a marvelous God we serve. It was humbling to see what He had done and to even think that at times on our journey I would grow weary and lacking in faith.
All of these things were going through my head and when it was finally our time to share...my head wouldn't stop spinning. As I struggled to gather my thoughts and find the right words, my heart spoke. It wasn't an organized speech. I couldn't even clearly explain the sequence of events in our adoption story. This was the first time I had attempted to tell our story publicly and it wasn't easy. It was just one emotional outpouring after another. I realized, adoption is not a story...it is my heart's song. So although I had plenty of time to prepare "the story" when our time finally came, it really didn't matter what I had to say. My heart took over...and sang.
