An Epic Adoption Story – January 30 Update
We feel like we’re in one of those scenes from The Matrix where bullets are flying and we’re in super slow motion, at least our minds are while our bodies are definitely on their way to Uganda. But our minds are still stuck back in, “Is the day ever going to come God? Are we ever going to actually finish this deal?” After 3 ½ years of waiting and only three days to switch gears it just still seems like a dream.
Several times on the planes or in the airports Kristi and I just look at each other and shake our heads and say, “Is this really happening?” or “We’re going to Africa.” I’m writing this as we wait in a Starbucks in Amsterdam for the last leg of our trip for the union.
I want to call it a reunion. After all we’ve prayed for these kids every day for two years, but in reality it’s just a union…our first connection. Even as I write those words tears begin to well up in my eyes.
As we have dreamed about what the moment we see our children will be like. I never dreamed our first encounter would be at the airport. I have envisioned and romanticized it in my mind. It’s a hot day, around 2:00 pm in the afternoon and we show up at the orphanage and they run into our arms and we ride off into the sunset. Never in the midst of the chaos that is the Ugandan Airport, never did I think that this would happen at night, nor after we have been awake for 24 hours straight.
But if I have learned anything on this Epic Journey it’s that I am just supposed to be an actor in a play for which I know the character I’m supposed to play (Jesus), but the lines, the actions, the circumstances are all improvisational. Nothing is known, at least by us, except that God is God.
I heard Andy Stanley a few years ago say something that was profound enough to end up posted in my office. I read it almost every day, but it only recently seemed to be purposed for this moment. He said, “When it is time God will get you there.” I always applied that to ministry, but never to family. With Mom gone and now 3 ½ years spent toiling none of this has happened the way I think it should have. My new children were supposed to meet their Grandma Sharon, be here at the ages of 3, 4, and 5, and this might be the time when we’d think about coming back to Uganda for a visit. I know without a doubt that those plans were insufficient, and we could not see why this is THE time because “When it is time God will get you there.”
Compassion – An Epic Adoption Story
So, after Dennis (pronounced Daneese), came three more Compassion children into our lives. We continued to do the whole birthday match thing and made it a Christmas tradition as a gift to each of our children when they were old enough to write a letter.
Baili’s first Compassion child was tragically killed in an auto accident. She was hit by a car. We had only gotten to know her for a few months. Baili was sad, and too young to process the finality of the event, but Kristi was broken. I can still remember the phone call as Kristi wept as if we had lost our own child. This was supposed to be a cool idea for our kids, and instead it was changing us too. The reality of the Third World had crept into our lives, and the fragility of the life of a child was no longer an idea, but was felt deeply that day.
Help a Child
Compassion sent us another child. This time it was a boy, from Haiti. Roodnelson, known as Son, didn’t have the same birthday, but we didn’t care. He was cute as a button. We couldn’t refuse.Mallori was the last to receive her Compassion child, Emma from Kenya. We now had an African connection.
We read their letters, have the kids write them back, and have made them a part of our family as best we can. Shelbi eventually wants to visit Dennis. It’ll be a priority after we get our new kids home.
Every night our girls would pray and eventually the routine became, “God I pray for Son, Dennis, and Emma.” And that ritual continues to this day.
Go here for the previous chapter in this adventure.
To find out more about Compassion International click on the link, or if you really want to be impacted go read this book.
The Youth Rally – An Epic Adoption Story,
I was a new dad, a young youth director in a mid-sized United Methodist church, and I had just gotten a new job at Lexmark to help supplement our income, and to put to work my MS in Chemistry.
Duffy Robbins was the speaker at a denominational youth even in Frankfort, and other than enjoying him I can’t remember what he had to say. Sorry Duffy.
What I do remember is walking past a table with a bunch of kids pictures on it. One of the first ministries I implemented as a youth director was sponsoring a kid through World Vision as a Youth Group. The youth would send her letters. We’d take up offerings to help cover the monthly support. I’d post her report card on the bulletin board. She eventually married at the tender age of 14 and she was from Africa.
This ministry was another child sponsorship organization called Compassion. I remember just thumbing through the packets, and eventually it hit me to see if by chance there might be a child with the same birthday as Shelbi Lynn. I felt like I was supposed to do this, but this time it was for us as a family. I made a deal with God that if there was a packet of a child with the same birthday as Shelbi, then I’d do it.
Now as the weekend went along I passed the table several times. I never found a packet with Shelbi’s birthday. On the last day the person at the booth finally asked me if I was looking for something in particular. I explained the desire for the birthday match and that there weren’t any on the table thinking she would just sigh and say, “Sorry, we can’t help you.”
Instead she pulled out a box full of other kids.
In about two minutes, there she was, Dennis (pronounced Daneese) Rafael Campos from Peru. A beautiful child, with a beautiful family, who needed Jesus, and a sponsor and I had made a deal with the LORD…