December 20th has been quite the special day in our married life, and once, a day of infamy. You see, we were married on December 20th. Anniversary day, yay! But a tragic day in 2011 when we delivered a baby we lost 15 weeks into pregnancy. After realizing our calling to adopt, we began paperwork. Certain that nothing could ever dull that kind of pain on what was once a day of celebration, the day was restored while reviewing a file that was presented to us for a little boy in China who needed a family. Scrolling through the notes of a medical file, the little boy who became our Samuel (http://savingsamuel.blogspot.com for his story) was born on . . . you guessed it December 20th. You can call it coincidence if you want, but com'on! Amy and I knew that was God's smirk and "this is your son" moment. That makes a great story, right? Day of celebration, destroyed by loss, and restored again! Thankful for God working in our lives in such an impactful and beautiful way, I could tell others how the story ended. Except this blog is about Jeremiah? Weird.
So there we were almost a year after bringing Samuel home, minding our own business. Anniversary day rolls around. I don't remember exactly what we did to celebrate, but I'm sure it was awesome! Anyway, I was scrolling my Facebook news feed. Facebook! Did you know you could find the son you didn't know you had on Facebook?!?!?! That's were this story is going! I'm thumbing through all the latest Facebook gossip, garbage, a boohoo'ing as I blaze past a picture of a beautiful Chinese boy. Scroll back up . . . holy cow what a good looking kid! Wait! What? He needs a family? His picture was posted by our adoption agency. "Amy" I said, "Look at how cute this kid is". "Wow, he is cute! You should ask about him" she replied. He had been waiting for a . . . long . . . time. Nine days later, after learning about him, thinking about him, and praying that this really is what we were supposed to be doing . . . we submitted a letter of intent to adopt to the Chinese government. One year ago today.
In just over a week I begin my trek back to China. Back to the home country of two of my sons. It's a story that seems a little too fantastic to be my own. I am waaay to calculated of an individual to be doing things this crazy. But I am ridiculously excited about it. Adoption is tragic. It is difficult. It hurts. It hurts baaaaaad. But it is also beautiful. It is healing. It is worth it. Every moment of turmoil in the trenches, every wink of lost sleep, every price that has been paid is worth it. So back to China I go . . .
