From Love to Love to Love.

More than two years ago, our sweet little foster son came into our lives and today he turns four.  He came into our life for one night and ended up staying for two years.  This month, he will finally join his forever family.  He has been loved and will be loved.  We are so thankful.
We will never forget the night he came- skinny and scared and hungry.  He was so weak he couldn't suck on a bottle but we pressed on until he drank a little formula.  We put him down to sleep on some piled blankets and when we woke up two hours late to feed him again, his bright little eyes were looking around the room. What could he have been thinking or feeling?
I picked  him up that night and and looked at him and said "You will live."  And he did.  We figured out a feeding plan, cleared up the pneumonia and he began to grow and thrive.  He had  a sweetness about him that just made my heart melt.  He gained the developmental milestones that he should have and all his teeth came in at about the same time.  His fun and determined personality came out.  He was a treasure.
We were very naive when we got him.  We thought we would get him healthy, find him a family and get him home.  We thought we would have him for about nine months.  We didn't know about the governmental resistance to allowing children with Down Syndrome to be adopted.  We planned and we schemed and we prayed.  Each time we took him to the orphanage for vaccinations, we would dress him up in his cutest clothes.  We would bring books and toys to show them what he could do.  One of the nurses told us that she had never seen a special needs child look at a book. We wanted the people there to see him as a person- a little boy who  needed a family.  On one of our last visits there, several people came into the room to look at him.  Soon after that, we got the text that changed everything.  The text that said to look at our e-mail when we got home, that the orphanage had said yes to doing the adoption paperwork.  I will never, forget that moment when we knew that our sweet little guy had a future. It's one of the top moments of my life.
So this month, he will be joining his forever family.  A family where he will have brothers and sisters and grandparents!  Amazing.  Since we left China, he has been staying with his wonderful, fierce ayi.   She helped us take care of him when we were in China and she is such a major part of his growth.  She and her husband have stepped outside of cultural norms and invested and loved in a child with Down Syndrome who was not a blood relative.  She taught him how to stand by leaning him against a wall so that he would get the idea.  She read books to him.  She took him out in public and let him make friends with kids in the neighborhood. She has sent us pictures and videos in the year and a half since we left China. She has loved him with a strong and sacrificial love.  May she and her family be blessed.
Thank you to Dr. E and Dr. GJ who found him in the orphanage and convinced them to let him go into foster care.  Thank you to Dr. Eva and Dr. Katherine who worked out a feeding plan and came over to check on him every time I called.  Thank you to Dr. Nancy, the tiny Taiwanese doctor who read the hospital the riot act when our little guy needed oxygen.  To HM who kept asking the orphanage if he could be adopted. Thank you to Pam, speech therapist above no other who helped us to strengthen his swallowing.  Thank you to Gillian, who helped so much with our understanding of Down Syndrome.  Thank you to Julie G. who also helped us with physical therapy resources.  Thank you to Maggi for sending over beautiful clothes for our handsome guy.  Thank you all who helped him.
Thank you to Elisabeth for welcoming a little brother into our family and letting it change your life.  Thank you Christa and Jason and Peggy for all that you have done to help this little guy.
Thank you, Lynn and John for sending out the letter that found his forever family.  To his forever family...we have only met by e-mail and SKYPE but we love you and pray for you.  Thank you for taking a risk and adding a special needs little one to your family.  We have no doubts that you are the perfect family for him and we are so thankful you were willing to take on the mountains of paperwork and expenses that it takes for international adoption.  We will always love him with a deep love but we are so glad he will be a part of your family.
Every year on our foster son's birthday, I think about his birth parents and I wonder if they are thinking about him.  We do not know the complicated circumstances that made them abandon him in a hospital.  But I hope they are thinking about him today.  All though I know they will never read this, I want them to know what all birth parents want for their children- that he is loved and he is safe.
To our sweet little guy, the next part of your life may be difficult as you leave all that you know to enter your whole new life.  But it will be worth it because you are worth it.  We love you and will never forget you.  You are always a part of our heart.
Hagar wandering in the wilderness called God "The God who sees" (Genesis 16:13).  We are so thankful that the God Who Sees saw this little one.  Selah.