Before I even tell you who I am, I want to say how honored I
am that I was asked by Kassie to share our Adoption story! I am not a good
writer, I don’t like to read and you’ll soon see I’m horrible at grammar. That
being said, I am passionate about what God has placed in our hearts and I can’t
wait to share our story.
Let me share a short story about Zhi, when he was 5-6 months
old he was abandoned at the gate of a Children’s Institute in China. He has a
skin condition called Large pigmented Nevi and Bathing Trunk which is
considered “Bad Luck” in China. He turned 4 years old in July. He loves to
sing, dance and steal toys for his friends. He’s ornery so I think he’ll fit in
great at his new home.
Now a little about us…We are just the Lee family: Yep that’s
it, nothing special, nothing amazing, just the Lee family. There is Brian my
husband, Logan our 4 year old Son, Levi our 3 year old Son and me (Melissa but
most know me by Mel). When we were praying about adoption I found myself
shutting out God’s voice because I thought there was no way he would call us to
adopt at this time. We are still a one income family, we don’t even own a home,
nor have college degrees. How can an ordinary family make adoption even semi
possible at this point in their lives?
It was Logan that asked us to adopt Zhi. I stopped opening
emails from the waiting children agency because I knew we weren’t ready to
adopt yet, But for some reason I opened their email and there was Zhi, along
with several other children waiting to be adopted. Logan pointed out Zhi, and
he started asking me 100 questions about him, and then he said “Can you try to
be his Mommy and Daddy?” Even though it was hard to tell him no, I knew that we
just couldn’t do it right now. So we prayed for Zhi nonstop, that he would find
a family. With every prayer Logan would ask God if we could try REALLY REALLY
hard to be his Mommy and Daddy. As I
shared on our Bringing Home Zhi Facebook page, I had a similar prayer when I
was 13 years old and God was faithful beyond my prayers. Maybe God was using Logan to open our eyes to his
plan for us to adopt Zhi? So I decided
to file out a small form for more information about Zhi.
The next day I received information about him and the
requirements from China in order to adopt. The first thing I noticed was you
must have $80,000 in assets; I literally laughed at how stupid I was for
thinking God was calling us to adopt right now.
That night as I was praying for Zhi, I started to get mad at God…Why
would you make me feel so sure, when you knew we couldn’t do this? A few weeks
went by and the adoption agency called me to see how the application was going.
I told her we didn’t have the assets required so we wouldn’t be able to move
forward. She told me just to grab a pen and paper and start calculating our
assets. That afternoon I started adding up stuff. About 15mins into the toy
room I realized we should sell all the toys and buy a house! I was shocked! I
called her, and then we starter the application right away.
What I forgot that day I was mad and questioned God, was that
he already knew we would struggle to make this work financially, He knew that
we would have ups and downs and He already knows we are just an ordinary
family! But he that didn’t stop him from choosing us to follow through with HIS
plan because you see; He doesn’t need us to be perfect or miracle workings, he
just needs us to open our hearts and let him work through us. I love the saying
“God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called”. We are still the “nothing special, nothing
amazing Lee family” but we have the most amazing team member holding our hands
and guiding us through this path.
We have been asked how we knew Zhi was the right fit for us
and the answer is: We just knew! The same way I knew Brian was meant to be my
husband. When I look at Zhi I see our Son, I don’t see a boy that needs recued,
I see a Boy that needs his family. We feel like Zhi is meant to bless our
family and we can’t wait to finally hold him in our arm! I know they are taking
very good care of him at the Children’s Institute but as a parent it’s so hard
to not be in control of his needs. It’s literally painful to think about him
going to bed without us being able to hug and kiss him goodnight.
We are very grateful for your prayers and support as we are
waiting to Bring Zhi home! With God’s Strength, everyone’s prayers and support
we know powerful things will happen!
With much Love!
Mel
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