Part Three

If you need to start from the beginning go here...Part One

 Part Three:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7

For several days we kept the news about YuanYuan to ourselves. It was just too difficult to talk about because of all of the emotions involved. Thankfully though, our wonderful social worker Karla checked in on us constantly. Although she could not tell us what to do, she offered us encouragement and support and we knew without a doubt that she was praying for us. I am certain I said some pretty CRAZY things to Karla…but she always brought me back to what was important and helped me regain focus in her sweet, kind way. After a few days, we shared the news with some family members, then some close friends. We were so thankful for the prayers and Godly wisdom we received from each person we spoke with. After a few more days, we also decided to tell our children about what was going on, not because they would get to make the decision for us, but so that they could see that sometimes we don’t know what to do in life and we must continue to trust God and seek Him for direction.

This was such a difficult time for us as a family. We only wanted to do His will, but nothing seemed clear. We knew for certain though, that God would unite our hearts and until He did that we would just continue to pray. We prayed for peace. We prayed for direction. We prayed for YuanYuan. We prayed for fears to be removed. We prayed that God would receive glory in all things. 

I am going to admit something now that will sound very silly to some, but it is a part of the story so I will share. One thing that came to my mind several times during these few weeks was the fact that if we adopted YuanYuan I would have to choose a new name. We could not give him the name Julia (which is what we were planning on naming our daughter). Picking a name for my children has always been difficult for me. And each of my children have at least one family name. Well, my silly self was kind of perturbed at the thought that I had a perfectly good girl name picked out already and I didn’t have any idea what I would name another boy. Sadly, the idea of picking a boy name felt like a burden rather than a blessing. 

We attended our adoption agency’s annual fundraising banquet a little over a week after we learned YuanYuan was a boy, and while we were still very much uncertain how to proceed, God showed me that He was still in control and that He still cared about the little things. We didn’t get a big glaring sign that said “Do THIS you crazy people” but He did use another family to reveal a wonderful boy’s name to us. It was a first and middle name that were BOTH family names. It was a name I never would have put together. It was a name, that when I heard it, I just had a sense of peace…and I knew that if this was our son then I no longer had to worry about picking a name.

Slowly, with each passing day, fears were removed and peace began to manifest in our hearts. We began to trust that God was directing our steps and that we should continue on the path that He had put us. We had NO peace about letting YuanYuan’s file go back. We knew he needed surgery, we knew we were comfortable with the unknown long term prognosis, and we knew that if we said no to him it would only be because he was a boy. I knew my precious daughter had even begun to open her heart to a brother because she told me one morning that if God said she was supposed to have a brother then she would let him sleep in her room. God was working on all of our hearts, and gently whispering, “Trust Me.” 

So without having all of the answers…we decided that YuanYuan was still ours. The desire for another daughter, the desire for a sister, the desire to know how everything was going to work out was not removed. But, “the peace of God that surpasses all understanding” united our hearts and we rejoiced in the fact that we had been given a son...who will soon be known as John Thomas Yuan Hammond.

To be continued...