Fingerprints

Fingerprints.

They are what set us a part from everyone else on this planet. And yet, they are pretty much invisible to the naked eye. They are something we never think about. However, without them, we wouldn't be who we are.

I've never been one of those people who believes in "good luck" charms or "signs". However, I do believe in a God who likes to show up and show off quite often. I like to call those marks on my life His fingerprints- marks of who He says He is in His word displayed in my every day life to remind me of who He is. I call them fingerprint moments.

I love fingerprint moments. And our adoption is filled with them!

For those of you that have been keeping up with our adoption journey, you may remember the reason why we began the journey. A face in China. A little Chinese baby girl with a heart and skeletal condition in need of a home immediately. I instantly fell in love with her picture and knew from that point on, I was supposed to adopt. However, we quickly found out that we didn't qualify, for many reasons, to adopt from China, so we pursued domestic infant adoption.

Again, as most of you know, things moved fairly quickly for our entire adoption process and on October 31st, we became homestudy approved and adoption ready. In the midst of all the paperwork and waiting, we were presented with 7 different adoption opportunities and had our profile shown 4 times, and we were even asked to foster a medical needs child. In the end, none of these situations worked out and we were starting to wonder why. Why weren't we being chosen? Didn't we look great on paper? Were we good enough? The questions continued as we continued to wait.

Then, on Thursday, November 12th, I received a FB message from a dear friend of mine who has 6 children and has also adopted. She was sending me the link to a 4 week old baby girl of Chinese descent with a very rare genetic disorder who needed to be adopted immediately. There was a picture of this precious baby and she caught my eye right away. However, we were in the midst of waiting for answers from Bethany about families who were looking at our profile, so we put the idea of this little one on the back burner.

Monday, November 16th, we found out we had not been chosen by the families through Bethany, so we began to entertain the idea of this little 4 week old baby girl. And from this point on, God's fingerprints started showing up everywhere. First, the way the information even got to me should not have happened. It was found by my friend on a FB page where the link was not supposed to be in the first place and as soon as my friend saw it, the link was removed. It was up for less than 5 minutes. Fingerprint moment!

 We called the agency that this little girl was under and by Friday, we had been approved to meet the family who was anxiously waiting to meet us. Side note- the birth family had become friends with a woman who knew my friend with the 6 kids and she and I had spoken a few times over FB message and phone. She gave my name to the birth family and the mother found my blog and read the entire thing. She was so excited to meet us after reading the blog. Fingerprint moment!

 Once we were approved, we arranged to meet the family at our house the following day, Saturday, November 20th. They came to our home to see where their daughter would be living and raised and to spend time getting to know me and Dave. During the conversation, we chatted about the baby's name, Cindy, and how my mom and Dave's mom both have the same name. We all got chills at that point. Definitely another fingerprint moment!

 On Monday, November 23rd, we were told that the birth family had chosen us to become the parents of their daughter, Cindy. We were so very excited and felt blessed beyond belief that they would choose us. As Dave and I chatted about the adoption journey we have been on, we were humbled by the fact that God had pricked my heart with the face of a little girl in China with medical needs who needed a home that we could not physically provide and still gave me and Dave the desires of our heart by allowing us to adopt a Chinese baby girl with medical needs right here in our country without all of the limitations! An amazing fingerprint of God's love, sovereignty, and grace on our lives!

 Tuesday, November 24th, was probably one of the hardest days of my life. That was the day that the birth family chose to sign relinquishment papers of their baby girl so that we could adopt her into our family. Her birth parents love her so much that instead of taking her back to China where she would not be able to get the medical care that she needs for her genetic disorder, they chose instead to find a loving family here in America to care for her and raise her as their own knowing that her medical needs could be met here in the United States. My heart broke as I hugged her birth mom and promised her that I would take good care of Cindy. My heart ached as she handed me the bag of clothes she had bought for this precious baby girl. And now, part of my heart is half way across the world in China with this momma as we are linked by the face of a beautiful little girl that we have now named, Abigail Cindy. God's fingerprints are everywhere!

The journey from last Tuesday to today has been filled with many phone calls, trips to the NICU to visit our sweet baby girl and anticipation of today, November 30th, as we signed papers to make Abigail an official part of the Woodley family.

As I sit and reflect on the many moments that have lead up to the culmination of today, I am completely overwhelmed with the faithfulness and love of my savior, Jesus Christ. He showed up and showed off when He placed Abigail in our family. But most of all, He allowed us to share Himself to Abigail's birth family in amazing, incredible ways! Adoption is the Gospel lived out here on earth. Just as God gave His one and only Son to save many from the sins of this world, so one mother grieves a loss as many are rejoicing in a gift. How blessed I am to be a part of God's plan for Abigail and how humbled I am that I was chosen to be her mommy.

God has had His hand on this adoption the entire time and in these past two weeks, I finally saw the fingerprints!

 Meeting Abigail for the first time

 



Love being a mommy

Daddy's little princess

Already stylin'!

Those cheeks!



Resting peacefully and loving being held

Our amazing, little blessing!

Adoption: An earthly view of a heavenly redemption

In the midst of something that is hard, you have to remember the "why". Without the "why", there's no motivation for sticking to it when the going gets tough.

Why do I workout? Because I want to stay healthy for my husband and future kids.

Why do I eat healthy? Because I want to stay healthy and fit for my husband and future kids.

Why do I go to work? Because I need money so that I can have a roof over my head and food to eat.

Why am I a nurse? Because I love caring for the sick and hurting and helping others in a time of need and desperation.

Why am I adopting? Because I want to give a child a home; to give a child a future; to give a child redemption from a situation that was not fit for the child.

Why am I adopting? Because as a Christian, I believe that earthly adoption is a beautiful example of the eternal adoption I have in Jesus Christ and I want to give back to a child here on earth for what Jesus did for this child. right. here.

Parallels between Earthly and Eternal adoption:

1) It's Costly
  In order for there to be a hope and a future for mankind, a price had to be paid.
Because of the sin of Adam and Eve in the Garden at the beginning of time, all mankind was cursed with sin.
God gave Adam and Eve a choice and they chose their own way instead of God's way. Because of that choice, we are all eternally separated from God.
 God is perfect and He cannot look on sin.
 However, God loved us too much to leave us in a state of desperation. So, He chose to make a way to adopt us. He sent His one and only son, Jesus, to die for us. He chose to allow His perfect, wonderful Son to die; to take upon himself ALL of our sin, so that He could have a relationship with us- sinful, broken, hurting, depressed, poor, mankind- and give us the beautiful hope of eternity with Him in heaven.
 Our earthly adoption is costly.
It means we aren't going on a nice vacation this year.
It means we aren't buying nice Christmas gifts for each other this year.
It means we will continue to rent a home for a few more years.
However, the cost to bring home our adoptive child pales in comparison to the cost Jesus paid in order to bring us home as His adoptive children.

2) It's a Choice
Jesus paid it all for us. And now, we choose.
We choose to accept that free gift of eternal life...of adoption.
When we choose the gift of adoption that He offers to mankind, we become a part of the family of God.
Just like a family will choose us and their child will become a part of our family and no longer be a part of his or her birth family, so we also leave behind the birth into a sinful life and become heirs of God's perfect family.
With that choosing to become a part of God's family comes a choice to be like that family. When we choose to be adopted into the family of God, we choose to say no to the sins of this world- drugs, drunkenness, sex outside of marriage, pornography, crude language and behavior, stealing, lying, etc.- because those things don't characterize God and who He is.
God wants all of mankind to make a choice, a choice to choose His family and become an adopted heir of Jesus Christ!

3) It's Unconditional
When Jesus adopts us into His family, it's not because we have it all together.
 It's not because we look great.
 It's not because we do good works.
No.
 Jesus chose to pay the price and give us a free gift of eternal life with Him because...He love us. Unconditionally.
And, when we choose to be a part of His family, nothing can ever change that. We have taken on His name. We have been given the inheritance of eternal life. We have been given the power and indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
And nothing, once we are adopted into His family, nothing can ever or will ever separate us from Him.
When our child comes home with us it won't be because they are perfect. Or have it all together. Or look the cutest. Or have the best genetic makeup.
No.
It will be because we love them...unconditionally.
When our child comes home with us and takes on our name, nothing will ever be able to separate that child from us. We will never stop loving that child no matter what he or she might do in the future. That child was chosen and wanted and will forever be ours.

And that's exactly how Jesus sees us. He loves us. He wants us. He chose to pay the greatest sacrifice for us. He desires that none should perish but have everlasting life.

Have you been adopted? Have you chosen to leave this earthly life of sin and instead accept the costly, free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ? Have you chosen to become adopted into the family of God and be given the inheritance of eternal life in heaven with Him?

If you haven't been eternally adopted, I encourage you to take a minute now and ask Jesus to come into your heart, to acknowledge that you are a sinner in need of a Savior, to have Jesus cleanse you from all of your sins, and to ask Him to become the Lord of your life.

When you make this choice, you become adopted into God's family. You become an heir to the eternal life that Jesus promises to all who are called under His name...His family. No longer will you be separated by sin and sentenced to hell forever, but you will be a child of God with the hope of eternal glory in heaven...with your eternal adopted family.

This. This is why I am adopting.