Mei's Medical Reports and More (Seemingly) Impossible Odds

We received Mei's medical report today through email - 5 documents in all. Most of them might as well be written in Greek even though they have been translated into English. Too much doctor lingo! Here is part of what one of them had to say concerning Mei's early days:

Mei ..., male, was abandoned at the gate of  [undisclosed]. On [undisclosed date], [undisclosed] police station of [undisclosed] Branch in [undisclosed] received a common people’s report at 2:35 in the morning, sent Mei to [undisclosed] Hospital, diagnosed both hands and feet deformity(3 toes on feet). He was sent to our institute after no finding of his birth parents through various searching and visiting, approved by the [undisclosed] District on the same day. His physical exam showed: ... four limbs deformity, both upper limbs elbow joints deformity, both lower limbs skeleton malformation, both feet’s toes deformity。Preliminary diagnosis was: congenital ectromelia. His DOB was estimated on Apr.14 2008 according to his physical development.

We were excited to read on to learn that Mei's mental development is normal for children his age. His physical deformities seem to be the only issue at this point!

We also talked to the lady we have been working with tonight. She seems to think there is a really good possibility that we could be traveling in as little as 2-3 months to get Mei. I asked her, "Did you say 2-3 months before we travel to pick him up?" and she asked, "Is that too quick?" My response was, "Our plan was 12-18 months and we could make that happen. Apparently the Lord has another plan that only He can make happen. If He wants us to go get Mei and bring him home in 2-3 months He will provide a way financially for us to do that! At this point only He could pull something like that off because we don't see any other way!"

Once again - "God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20). We believe this is His plan and that He wants to pull this off to show that He is still in the business of doing what men see as the impossible! I serve a BIG God! He has already done immeasurably more than all we could have asked or imagined! I have no doubt He will complete what He started.

Please join us in praying for the Lord to complete this work! Pray for Him to continue moving the hearts of men to give financially that we could bring Mei home. Specifically pray that He will continue moving the hearts of people to provide the $20,000(+) still needed to allow us to bring Mei home! A youth pastor friend of mine (and his family) gave us $1000 today. I have served as a youth pastor and a youth pastor's budget is tight! They gave sacrificially and I know the Lord will bless them more than He already has! Thanks guys for your sacrificial gift to help us bring Mei home!

And by the way - thanks for the prayers and for joining us for this adventure. It is a blast watching the Lord do the impossible! I can't wait to bring Mei home and as he grows help him understand truths like this:

"My father and mother walked out and left me, but God took me in." (Psalm 27:10, Msg)

What an awesome God! Praise the Lord!

Thanks for the Prayer

I heard back from my friend from E. Asia tonight. He is fine! He didn't even know the money didn't go through and thankfully his identity has not been compromised through any of this. Thanks again for your prayers and for all the encouragement we have been receiving. Father is doing an amazing thing here and it is cool to hear you all praising Him for what He is doing! Keep praising Him and praying for Mei!

Pray Pray Pray

Earlier this week a friend of mine who is a missionary to E. Asia put money into our paypal account to help us bring Mei home. The money never went through and the transaction was cancelled. When I tried to find my friend on facebook his profile was no longer there. This could be nothing at all or it could be that he has compromised himself in the process of trying to help us. Please pray for my friend and this situation - pray that his identity was not compromised nor the identity of any of the believers in the country where he ministers. Pray also that the Lord will continue providing the finances needed when they are needed to bring Mei home and more than providing the finances pray that we will trust Him to continue working this out according to His will. Yesterday was a rollercoaster of emotions!

Lord, forgive us when we lack faith in you. We have no reason not to trust you to work this out according to your plan. Increase our faith! Have your way with us Lord. Amen.

Once again the Lord has shown us how He provides immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work...

This morning we met with our pastor to ask for the opportunity to share our story with our church. Most of the organizations who help people who are trying to adopt want to know that you have first approached your local church and so we set up a time to meet with Keith. I was hoping to be able to share our story with the church on a Wednesday night or something like that, but as we met with Keith and shared our story the Lord worked to impress on his heart to do an entire service around the theme of adoption. We are not sure how the service will look, but for now we hope to have a service in a few weeks where we get to share with both Sunday services. I can't wait to see how the Lord uses this for His glory.

It has been so amazing to hear so many people praise the Lord through this story so far. I am more and more amazed by His provision and faithfulness each and every day. He continues to display His awesomeness. God is so good!

Application is in the mail!

Many of you read how my friend in E. Asia sent the money to my pappal account for us to be able to send in the application, but the money has not cleared yet and may not until tomorrow or later.

So, today on my way to Eastman, GA I was praying. I confessed to the Lord how I have been anxious about the whole process (as if He didn't already know)! I admitted to Him that it has been hard to not be anxious, but I knew He was in control and was going to work this all out. Right about that time my phone rang and it was my wife calling. She was calling to tell me that she received $1100.00 in the mail today from two great friends and that with that money we were going to be able to put the application in the mail today. Now the money that Daryl sent will help cover all the cost for the home study that will begin soon.

We are far from having all we need financially to complete the adoption, but we know the Lord will continue to provide. What a great reminder today of His being in control. He has got this thing under control and in His timing everything everything will work out according to His will. I have such small faith and am so thankful that my Lord is forever faithful. He has to keep reminding me that He has this thing under His control. I am not sure why I continue to need Him to remind me, but I am so very thankful that He is gracious enough to do it.

Thank you Lord, for you are forever faithful even when I lack faith. I am so thankful that your faithfulness is not dependent upon my faith. You are just too good! Amen.

Beautiful Feet

I keep thinking about Mei's little deformed feet, which really are not deformed at all. Father formed his feet just the way they are and thus they are not de-formed, but perfectly and beautifully formed according to His plan.

Mei means beautiful! We are goign to leave him that name - Samuel Mei Deavers - and we are going to call him Mei (Shannon just doesn't know that yet!!!).

The verse that comes to mind when I think of this is Romans 10:13-15, "(13) ... for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (14) How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? (15) And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!"

How cool will it be for little Mei to grow up to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to the Nations? Then his feet will be beautiful in more than one way! Either way as his parents we will dedicate him to the Lord like we have all our children. We will raise him to the best of our ability in Christ and will point him toward seeking and serving the Lord with all his heart.

May the Lord grant us the wisdom, patience, perseverance, compassion, and love (along with everything else it takes) to be the godly parents we need to be.

God can do soooo much more...

Ephesians 3:20, "...God is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us."

A few days ago we were praying for the Lord to provide the $1500 we needed to send in the application for the adoption. We would have never imagined to pray for over a million prayer warriors to join us in praying for the adoption process. Father not only provided the $1500 we needed to send in the application He also provided immeasurably more than all we asked or ever imagined according to His awesome power that is at work within us! He provided millions of prayer warriors, which is soooooo amazing! I still can't seem to wrap my mind around it! How awesome is my God!

Overwhelmed by God's Blessings

Tonight we received a major blessing. My friend in E. Asia sent $1500.00 to our paypal account to help give Mei a home!!! How awesome is that!!!

Then my friend went on to tell us he has all the folks in the network he is a part of in E. Asia praying for Mei and our adoption process. By the way - this network is about 14 MILLION members!!! That is not a typing error by the way - that is 14 MILLION!!! There are over 14 MILLION people praying for this adoption process. You just don't understand how overwhelming that is to me!

You want to know the crazy thing! Just a few days ago I was talking on facebook to another friend who I met through this friend in E. Asia . This new friend told me how to connect with my old friend through facebook and all of the sudden - a few days later we have the money we need to send in our application and an additional 14 MILLION prayer warriors helping us pray for Mei to come be a part of our family! How crazy awesome is that. I don't know if I will be able to sleep tonight!

Father, thank you so much for the blessings! Thank you so much for my brothers and sisters in E. Asia who are just so amazing. Thank you so much for everyone who is praying for us and who is supporting us through this process in so many very cool ways! I am so thankful that you direct my steps. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Amen.

My Help Comes From the Lord

Last night Shannon and I completed the application for the adoption and the application for the home study. It felt so good to be finished with the application and ready to send it in and then reality hit...we did not have the money to send it in yet. We are still about $1500 short of what we need to send the application in right now. In a week or so we will have it in the bank, but time is so critical right now. I sat at the dining room table last night feeling so dejected and sad. I said to Shannon, "This is such a helpless feeling."

This morning I woke and sat at the kitchen table to have my time with the Lord. I opened my journal and before I began reading His Word I wrote, "Last night was a helpless feeling." After I wrote these words I saw it! I saw what I had written yesterday morning in my journal after reading God's Word! I was blown away with my Sovereign Father's encouragement and still am!

After reading Psalm 121:1-4 yesterday I wrote:
"My help comes from the Lord God Almighty! The Maker of heaven and earth is my Helper, the One who watches over me, & never lets my foot slip. He watches over me 24/7/365 and never needs a break to sleep! Right now we are in great need of help. We need help with the adoption process. I need help getting through this day being sick. I need help getting through the warfare that will come my way today. I am simply a helpless man who needs his Maker to be my help! Praise the Lord for His Word! What an encouragement to know my Lord is always watching over me!"

After reading Psalm 121:5-8 this morning I wrote:
"The Lord watches over me! He knows what I need even before I need it. No matter if I am coming or going He knows my path! He is my shade at my right hand. He watches over me now, has been watching over me, and will continue watching over me forevermore! This adoption process has not caught the Lord off guard. This is part of His plan. We are walking by faith praying for Him to provide what we need at each step as we are in mid-step. We are not waiting for the provision before we step because we feel He is moving and calling us to follow. We have already heard the sounds of marching in the tree tops (2 Samuel 5:22-25) and we are following His lead! This will stretch our faith in a major way. This is good! In His timing we will have what we need. We are going to grow alot through this! Lead on Lord! Lead on!"

May the Lord be exalted through our lives. He alone is worthy of all our praise!

Against All Hope

We had our first face-to-face meeting today with the lady from the agency who is our representative with the agency we are adopting through. We met her at the home of one of her other families who have already adopted through her. This family has three children from E. Asia. This lady is a blessing! The Lord has truly blessed us by putting us with her. She is a great woman of faith. If any of you are ever is interested in adopting please let us know and we will get you connected with her! She is great!

Here is the latest:

When we first talked with her about how long it might take before we would be traveling to E. Asia to get our child we were looking at anywhere from 12-18 months (which is the norm for adopting special needs children from E. Asia). Shannon already had a plan worked out where in a year's time we could have most of the money saved up through what the Lord has already blessed us with through both our incomes. So we were feeling pretty secure in all of this - no pressure! Today she told us that we could very well be looking at anywhere from 4-8 months instead of 12-18 - pressure!!! 12 months we could do, but 4-8 will have to be a God thing! There is no way on our own we could have $24,000 that quick and a good bit of it we need up front as we begin the process (which we have begun). However, we know the Lord will provide a way for us to bring Mie home.

"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed...being fully persuaded that God had power to do what He had promised" (Romans 4:18a&21).

What a great opportunity to stretch our faith and see the Lord work His will in a way that is far beyond what we could do ourselves. My God is such an awesome God! I can't wait to see how He pulls this off. Thank you for the prayers and support!

By the way - when the Lord blesses us with Mei we are going to give him the name Samuel. Samuel has Hebrew origins and carries the meanings, "Asked of God" and "God has heard." One definition is, "The son I prayed for."

James 1:27a says, "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress"...

As we try to live out our faith and do our part to help look after the "least of these" we are praying and asking Father to allow us to bring Mei home. Like Abraham, against all hope we are hoping in our God who "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us" (Eph.3:20).

Join us as we pray! Pray that our faith will be firm and that He will provide financially in ways we never imagined!

TD

Adoption Update

Yesterday we talked with our representative through the company we are working with. She is amazing. She asked us once again if we wanted Mei and of course we said YES! November 9th her guy in E. Asia is supposed to pay another visit to the orphanage where Mei is located. At that point he will check his medical papers and will be able to get his adoption paperwork to hold it until ours is complete. He is also going to try to get us a picture of two at that time so hopefully I will be able to post a picture here soon.

My question to her was this, "Once we have his paperwork in hand and we have fully committed to wanting to adopt him will our chances of being able to get him increase." Remember - all this time I have been being told that being able to choose the orphanage much less the child was nearly impossible. She says, "Oh yeah! At that point it will be pretty much a done deal as long as all the paperwork goes through and all the checks check out."

We are praying that Mei will be able to become a part of our family. Against all hope it seems like the Lord is working His will. What seems to be impossible with men is possible with God!

Lord, your will be done! That is all we want! Amen.

I am so proud of my wife also - she has been wanting to have our kitchen redone since we moved into this house over a year ago. It really could use some opening up which would be nice when we have a house full of college students on Monday nights for Bible study. After the Catalyst conference she came home and said she felt that the Lord was telling her she needed to invest that money into something with much more significance - like adopting Mei. I have an amazing wife! She loves the Lord and somehow loves me too - miracles never cease!

Thank you, Lord, for my many blessings!

The Adoption Process Begins

This summer I had the great opportunity to go to E. Asia for a month. While I was there I was able to visit an orphanage in the city where we were staying. First let me back up a little...

Shannon and I have talked for years about adopting a child. For whatever reason we have always wanted to adopt a child from E. Asia. Several months before I had the chance to go to E. Asia we began talking about tying to adopt a special needs child. Now back to where I was earlier...

When we visited the orphanage in E. Asia it just happened to be a special needs orphanage. The kids there were amazing. They just grabbed your heart. We actually got to go to this orphanage twice. Both times I spent a lot of time with one particular little boy. He is about 18 months old, was born with 3 toes on each foot, and no fingers. He was dropped off at the orphanage when he was 2 days old.

The last day I got to spend time with him was really hard on me. I held him for about an hour. I took him over to the window to watch it rain as he took in everything his little eyes could fix on. At one point another girl there was dancing around while everyone else clapped. I held this little boy on my knee while we watched her dance and he began to bounce up and down and got really excited. This was the first time I had seen him with any sort of excitement on his face. Shortly after this we had to leave and I had to lay him back in his crib. As soon as his little body hit the crib he began to try to roll over to get out of the crib as he cried horribly. He did not want to be put back in the crib and it ripped my heart out to see him lie there crying. I wanted so much to take him with me and vowed if I could I would come back and take him home one day.

While I was in E. Asia I began asking people about the chances of us being able to adopt this particular little boy. Everyone there told me the chances of that happening were very slim. Apparently you typically fill out the paperwork and let them know what type of child you are looking for and they match you up with a child. You don't get to choose the child or even the particular orphanage the child comes from. When we began the process a couple of weeks ago I asked the lady we were talking to about the chances of getting this little boy and she also told me that the chances were very slim, but she said we could always try and see what happened.

I gave the lady we are working with a description of the little boy and the name of the orphanage. She sent her guy to check on the little boy. It actually looks like we may have a pretty good chance of getting this particular little boy.

And this is where we find ourselves today! We have a pile of paperwork to fill out and a lot of money to come up with. The Lord is already working and doing amazing things. Here is the verse I am memorizing right now that was given to me while I was in E. Asia the day after leaving the orphanage for the last time...

Romans 4:18a & 21 (NIV) 18 Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed ... 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.

I don't have a promise from God that this little boy will be ours one day, but we do have a great longing in our hearts to make him a part of our family. It seems like the Lord is working things out, but we have a long way to go. Will you join us in praying for His will to be done.

We have found out that the little boy's name is Mei (pronounced May). We are praying that the Lord will allow us to bring him home! Join us!

TD