From the Guy Who Stole Her Heart (Her Daddy)

I wanted to let Brad share his thoughts from this process.  Didn't figure you wanted to hear about another day spent in the hotel room, from the Mama!  This girl absolutely adores her Daddy, and it makes my heart soar to watch them bond and grow closer! 

Ella Grace laying on Daddy's chest

I don't even know where to start with all of this.  The Lord has been teaching me so much about Himself and His love for me through these last few months.  How can I even begin to articulate what He is doing in me through this time?  I'd sooner be able to dissect a rainbow and describe for you the splendor of the color spectrum as it explodes into all of its glory - to the praise of His glory and grace.  These are the things inside of my heart: a love that is being refined, as the Lord reveals how much He loves me, and as I watch it spill over unto this precious child that is my daughter.

My heart is so full.  I feel like I am singing a song that can only be heard and understood in heaven.  I don't know the words even while my heart is its author in response to all that the Lord is teaching me.  It is beautiful and continues on as an underscore amidst the daily diffculties and irritations.  That didn't begin this week in Nanchang.  That began the day I chose her, well, we chose her, and said this is our daughter.  Actually, it began the day He chose me, and redeemed me, and called me His own, His child, of no merit on my part, just an inexplicable lavishing of His love and grace into my life.  It began the day He made me an heir to the riches of God's glorious grace.  He has just used this event to allow her to be the overflow of God's love in my heart; the overflow of His grace, really.  I can't contain it, nor can I describe it.

Yesterday, I walked with her from our hotel.  She quickly fell asleep and so I kept walking - in a straight line so I could find my way back.  Before long, I was strolling through the memorial park that commemorates the beginning of China's Red Army.  It all started here in Nanchang.  I pondered the irony of this pastor walking through such a place.  I wondered what was being said of me.  It was clear, that I was a spectacle in such a place, this somewhat blonde-headed, blue-eyed man with a Chinese baby strapped to his belly.  I smiled and nodded a lot and continued to stroll along with my arms wrapped around my sleeping beauty.  I wanted to breathe this moment into the depths of my being, so that I will never forget.

With each adoption, the Lord has shown me more about Himself and more about myself.  The former is breath-taking and the latter causes me to dive more deeply into an ocean of self-relinquishment.  Maybe it's just my age (40), but this one, more than the previous three, has so gripped me.  It makes me want to keep going, just so I can see how much more of me I can give away and how much more of Him I can understand.  There's never enough of either of those things in my life.  What a glorious blessing is mine to be sharing this life with Shelly, Caleb, Jacob, Allyson, Ella Grace, & .......(ya never know with us!)

If our story has touched your heart in any way, the greatest way you could respond is to personally do something about the millions of orphaned children on this planet and adopt.  We had thousands of reasons why we couldn't do this (and they all had President's faces on them), but we proceeded in obedience to God's leading in our lives and He has provided through the entire process.  We'd love to talk to you about how to get started.  Chasing the Spirit through the fields of inexplicable is a beautiful thing.

Family pic at restaurant

 SuperGirl being walked by her Daddy

Daddy & Ella Grace Hands

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