Adoption has been in our hearts since the beginning of our relationship. As a child, a strong desire was put in my heart to adopt from China. I had a strong love for China and the orphans. When we started dating, it was one of the first things we had discussed. Fast forward to our tenth year of marriage, we had three young children, and we always talked about when we would adopt “down the road.”
In November 2016, we saw a picture of a little boy, and I couldn’t get him out of my mind. I cried daily over him and had dreams about visiting him. Zeke agreed that he was very drawn to this little boy, and we often discussed that we would adopt him if “it was better timing.” As the months passed, the Lord planted this little boy deeper and deeper into our hearts. We could not stomach the thought of him not being in our family. We continued to pray and felt that we had to at least pursue adopting this little boy, and so we started looking for a home study agency. We settled on ECFA, because we really felt comfortable talking with them. Additionally, we had seen them support our friends through a very long and difficult adoption process, and they always demonstrated that they were on our friend’s side and supportive of them. That was more important to us than any amount of money we may have saved going with a different agency. We have never regretted our decision, and plan to use their services in the future!
Our son, Yi-Kai, joined our family in September 2018. Yi-Kai is named after Zeke’s Chinese name, given to him by a Chinese friend. Yi means righteousness, and Kai means victorious warrior. Yi-Kai has been a blessing to our family. We love him dearly and he has made it clear that he is happy to be part of our family. There have been many adjustments and growing for each member in our family since Yi-Kai came home; but we can’t imagine him ever not being part of it. We are grateful for the care and love he received before he joined our family. I am grateful that his birth mother had the courage to put her sick baby in a place that he could receive the care he needed, the care that she couldn’t give him. I can only imagine the pain that caused and the bravery that took. We pray that he always knows he is loved and wanted.
Our process was filled with bumps along the way. We adopted at a time when the laws regarding adoption were rapidly changing in China, and there were many points in the process that if we had done a particular step of the process even two weeks later, we would not have been approved; however, we felt the Lord’s leading and guiding the entire way. We look forward to seeing how we continue to meld and grow as a family.
– Megan and Zeke