You Are So Good To Me

You heal my broken heart
You are my Father in Heaven

You are beautiful, my sweet, sweet song

lyrics by Third Day

(Photo taken May 2007)

On February 28, 2008, almost 10 months from the day we were hit by a “small bundle of rice” , a new Waiting Child List was posted and I was drawn to a 2 year old boy named Guo Zhi Zhao who was born on June 4, 2005. He would turn three in just a few months. His special need was Paroxysmal Supraventricular Tachycardia and “low growth for weight/height”. I called Chris while he was at work to find out if we could get his information. He said that he was not there to look at the information but that he did not want to pursue an older child, he really wanted a baby and, again, told me that we would not know what to do with a boy since we have three girls with tons of girl toys, clothes, etc. I said okay but, again, was so drawn to the little boy that I did not know what to do. I called Chris again and gave him the information on the list and ask him what he wanted me to do since the only child I was drawn to was Guo Zhi. He told me, “Well, I guess it does not matter that the child is older and Sami has been wanting a brother.” Even so, at one point during the paperwork, I had asked Sami if she thought that we would have a girl or a boy this time. She totally surprised me when she said, “Mom, before time began, God had this child planned for our family." I cried because she was repeating what I had told them so many times and that God used her to remind me.

Well, I requested his information and the first thing I wanted to know was the meaning of his name. Guo means “country, state, nation” and was also the first name of our oldest daughter’s, Sami, Chinese name (Guo Jia Yuan). Zhi means “The Will”. I could not believe how God was so personal in answering my prayer when I kept asking “What is your will?” and then sends us this little boy, Zhi, “The Will”. It was like God was saying in His sweet, gentle way that this is My Will. I also realized, after I requested his information, that he was born in Shanghai and was placed in the Shanghai Welfare Institute on August 26th, 2005. Mali had also been born in Shanghai and was placed in the Shanghai Welfare Institute EXACTLY two years earlier, on August 26, 2003. In fact, he was there, exactly one month, when we went to get Mali at the orphanage on September 26, 2005. They also both had heart conditions as well. Mali had a VSD (a hole in her heart) and Zhi had tachycardia. It was another confirmation from God.

The CCAA (China Center of Adoption Affairs) was starting a new online system and would only allow 4 days for you to have the file reviewed by a specialist, get the required letter from your insurance company and make a decision. You are not allowed to make a decision unless the file has been reviewed by a doctor and you have a letter from your insurance company stating they will cover the child once they are adopted. When Chris came home from work, he saw his picture and said, “Oh, he is so cute.” He wanted me to take his information directly to our pediatrician and have it reviewed. I told him I could not drive it up there this afternoon because I was watching my friend’s kids and I would take it up tomorrow morning. He said, “I will watch them outside on the swing set. Just take it up there NOW and drop it off so he can look at it tonight!” I was totally in shock and, of course, I did it. The doctor said that he thought the tachycardia might be due to being malnourished but, of course, could not guarantee this and that his “low growth-weight/height” according to China could change totally with love and nourishment just like we had seen in Mali.

I told Chris the information from the doctor and once we received the required letter from the insurance company, he DEFINITELY wanted to pursue. I asked him what he wanted to do if the other family decided to pursue him and he said, “We take it before the agency. Let them pray about it and let God decide.” I totally agreed. I knew, at that moment, he was our son. Finally, on March 5, 2008, the agency called and said that they had prayed about their decision, over several days, and that they had chosen us as the family to pursue Guo Zhi Zhao. We were overjoyed and, on that day, Guo Zhi became Joseph Zhi. He was named after his Baba, Christopher Joseph.

Later, God did one more thing that was so personal and humorous to confirm that Zhi was our son. One of my friends, called and asked what we were going to name him. After I told her that his name was Joseph, she said that she was so surprised because she thought I would name him something that ended with an “i” like my other girls, Sami, Lili and Mali. We laughed about it and later after I hung up the phone, the Lord reminded me that his name does end in an ’I”, his middle name, Zhi. God is so good! I just love Him.

Many times, people ask me what we are going to do with a boy. Well, I just tell them the same thing that I felt God showed me. He reminded me that a lot of things my girls do, boys do. They swing, swim, ride bikes, play in the sand (we have a sandbox), go fishing (we have a small lake in our backyard), jump on the trampoline, play Wii, play chase and hide-n-seek. There is so many things that they can do together.

Just like Chris said, since we have three girls, we had nothing for a little boy….no clothes, no toys and no furniture. Well, we had a white twin bed but it looked more for a girl than a boy but I thought I could make it work. I just prayed and asked God if he would help me to find a cute chest for his clothes to go in. I could not believe it when, that same week, my sister-in-law, Brenda said that her husband, Quintin, had a client that was trying to give away boy furniture. The family did not want any money for the furniture since they had been blessed so much but only needed someone to come and pick it up that day. I called Chris to see what he would say and he was like “YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN PICK IT UP TODAY!” I am going to be honest even after God has proven, over and over again, to do more than I could ever imagine, I really expected this furniture to be beat up since it was boy furniture and that the boys had outgrown it. Well, I was so wrong. It was beautiful Broyhill furniture!!! The family gave us bunk beds, a dresser with a mirror, a shelf, a nightstand AND a chest. God did not just answer my prayer, for a chest…………thank goodness………but far exceeded anything that I could ever have imagined.

Oh, God also covered the clothes and the toys. My friend, Kathy Ragsdale, gave us some of her boy clothes and Chris came home with 4 bags of new clothes!!! He also bought toys, too, which include a Big Wheel and a John Deere Loader he can ride, cars and trucks-big and small and tools. Chris said every guy has to have tools even if they are plastic. I even went and got him a small train set. The whole room was completely full and we even had extra. God did not just give Joseph a bed but also gave us one extra since we were given bunk beds. Of course, I can’t help but think of the meaning of the name, Joseph, "May God Add Another". :)