When God decided to interrupt our life…..
When first saw his face on July 4th (exactly 4 years after first seeing Tahlia’s face), I hadn’t even set out to look for our child. This was not on my radar……We knew we eventually wanted to go back to adopt but had no timeline at that point. We were focusing on trying to sell our house, settling into a new awesome church home, and adjusting to Brian’s new job and the commute that came with it! Many changes…but, all good!
I was scrolling though the advocacy FB page trying to catch up on some kiddies’ stories for advocating since I had been out of the advocacy loop for quite some time after a tumultuous year with our Gianna’s multiple open heart surgeries. We were just feeling like we were finally catching our breaths….
But, God spoke….and I am so thankful He gave me ears to hear and eyes to see. I am so glad we didn’t miss him!
Because there he was, his beautiful smile and sweet eyes looking right at me….and I knew when I saw his face I was looking at our son.
(my heart was beating SO HARD…God was immediately filling my soul with adoration and love for this sweet child, as if he was already mine!)
I tucked him into my heart and PRAYED AND PRAYED and immediately sent a text to my best friend with his picture saying “Want to know a secret? I am secretly praying to be his mama….long shot, but I love him!”
I knew there were HUGE mountains….and I knew those obstacles could only be battled by praying HARD. So, that is what I did…….
a week or so went by and I finally shared with Brian and showed him the videos. He also saw how special he was, but this was just NOT our timing, it seemed so impossible for many reasons ……
God was intervening in a HUGE way……
we prayed…we agreed to pray and come back later and talk. A couple weeks later we met on the couch and the conversation basically was a “put it all out there…all fears, and hopes” and we just left it at that…..
I just kept praying hard knowing God is sovereign and if he is meant to be ours He would show us!
Then God surprised again…….
Daddy came home on a special day, July 28th, which happened to be our precious boy’s birthday.
He told all the kiddies and me to sit down and that he was bringing in a surprise…
everyone just screamed, then cried, then hugged.
Yeah…he is the best BABA EVER!!!!
See, the kids had been praying as well that he was their brother. They already loved him, and hearing this news brought them such joy!!
We all were beyond excited and had such peace knowing we were right in the center of GOD’S WILL!
Let me first start by saying just how thankful we have been for the loving support we have received since announcing this adoption. We have been seriously overwhelmed by the shared joy of so many! What a blessing for others to celebrate this miracle with us! And we are so grateful for the love that we already feel poured out for our son, that we wanted to share more of how the Lord moved in our hearts in such a powerful way t6 adopt him!
So….All summer God had laid on my heart to randomly start praying the “Prayer of Jabez”.
“Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.“
I wasn’t sure why the Lord was laying that prayer on my heart, but I assumed it had to do with moving, Brian’s new job and being welcomed into a new church family. Each time I prayed that prayer, I felt the Lord telling me He would be increasing our Territory, bless us and give us PEACE with his blessings. But what did it mean????
It wasn’t until I saw my child that I knew,
THIS was what I had been praying for, and did not even know it!
God is awesome like that! His spirit was interceding on behalf of our Hudson and our family without me even knowing what I was praying for!!!!! PRAYER IS POWERFUL……
When I saw him, this UNEXPLAINABLE SUPERNATURAL PEACE came….. and I knew! He was near to the Lord’s heart, and God had set him aside just for us!
And, GET THIS!! I searched what his Chinese name meant and it blew me away:
when translated his 3 part Chinese name means, “Happy, Peace, Accomplished/prosperity”
We were told that his nannies gave him that name that he may have a happy and prosperous future!
When I heard of his translated name I knew, HE was the answer to my prayer of Jabez. He was the reason I was praying! All along I had been praying for prosperity and blessing and peace, but I had all along been praying for Hudson BY NAME!!!! I was praying him right into our family and didn’t even know it!
But, Why wasn’t this sweet boy already chosen?? IT BAFFLED US!!! He had been bounced between many agency designated lists with no family/
God had a plan.
His special needs are intimidating, we get that, …..but I had a SUPERNATURAL peace the moment I learned about him. I felt like the Lord had already prepared our hearts for him. It had nothing to do with our “confidence?, but everything to do with the work GOD had already done in our hearts up to that point to prepare us!
we read our son’s file and we knew he was unique, and wonderfully made. He is very unique just like Our Gianna.
He has a very special and unique heart. Hudson has a heart congenital defect called Dextrocardia, which affects 1 in 12, 0000 people.
basically, His heart is situated on the right side instead of the left side.
We are not sure which dextrocardia Hudson is, as there are two types:
- Isolated Dextrocardia
- the heart is simply placed farther right in the thorax than is normal.
- commonly associated with severe defects of the heart, including abnormalities such as pulmonary hypoplasia 1.
- dextrocardia with situs inversus.
- dextrocardia situs inversus refers to the heart being a mirror image situated on the right side.
- for all visceral organs to be mirrored, the correct term is dextrocardia situs inversus totalis.
- although persons with dextrocardia situs inversus tend not have any medical problems from the disorder, some are prone to a number of bowel, esophageal, bronchial and cardiac problems where some of these conditions can be life threatening if uncorrected.
We are praying and believe the he may be Situs Inversus, but are unsure if any other organs are affected. His medical file is very limited.
Hudson needs to be HOME. He needs to have a full Cardiology evaluation with Echo, EKG and and abdominal ultrasound of his organs when he gets home to find out the extent of his abnormalities and how to best help him! Please pray with us that his heart is functioning normally despite his dextrocardia and that NO other organs are affected!
We think he is absolutely amazing though!
Hudson is true warrior. See, while holding a precious and unique heart in his chest, he is also battling a form of Spina Bifida.
Our son went 5 precious years of his life functioning with a huge lump on his lower back due to Meningocele Spina Bifida.
This form of spina bifida is the least common. A small, moist sac or cyst protrudes through the gap in the spine. This sac contains a portion of the spinal cord membrane (meninges), and some spinal fluid. The sac may be covered with skin or part of the spinal cord membrane, but contains little or no nerve tissue.
He is fearfully and wonderfully made!
See, I wanted to share his special needs with you to gather specific prayer warriors and to share his miracles.
But our Hudson is not a “label” on a medical file. No child should ever be known by a “medical file”. He is so much more than HIS SPECIAL NEEDS. Those needs are NOT what identify him. He is a beautiful boy who has waited too long.
Hudson is known to “give his nannies much joy!”
He loves music and dancing and talking on a microphone!
He is smart and learns very quickly!
He has a smile that lights up a room and cheeks that go on for days and beg to be kissed!!!
Hudson is a son of the KING! He is a child of the most High God…a God who had a plan from the moment he was created….a plan for a hope and a future!
Hudson is our son……a gift.
I can’t believe we get to call this treasure OUR SON..
…..I am not done sharing God’s greatness…….Here is another amazing story about HOW BIG Our GOD IS! Sit back and be amazed!
God used our beloved family time in China (while adopting our precious Gianna) to prepare our hearts for our future son, Hudson, without us even knowing it!
While staying at her foster home, we fell in love with a special boy …I remember thinking how precious his smile and eyes were. He broke my heart. I held him close to my heart and looked in his eyes and made him a promise that I would find him a family or we would come back to get him ourselves! I wondered if he was OUR son….I was prepared and excited to be his mama if that was God’s plan. But, God had other plans. He was not our son. A month after getting home from China and fiercely advocating for him, HIS family was found. His mama KNEW he was her son, and I immediately knew she was the ONE. I knew that God’s purpose for me was to bring the two together!
I had SUCH a peace and thankfulness knowing HE was going home, though I was ready to make him ours if that was what God called us to do! But, here’s the crazy thing: both his mama and myself are dying at the resemblance of him and our Hudson, and they both have a heart defect and a form of Spina Bifida. I believe that God, gave me a foreshadowing vision while in China, of who our next child would be, without me even knowing! It almost seemed natural to me when I found out our Hudson had SB, God had already prepared me and given me a desire to adopt a child with this special need.
Also, here is another GOD story! While we were in China adopting Gianna and visiting Harmony House (her foster home), there was a precious child who was near and dear to our hearts (another CHD warrior) who needed to go to the hospital for emergency heart complications. We held her in the van, and comforted and cuddled her as her nannies drove her to the hospital in Beijing. What I would find out later from reading our son’s file, was that at the same time we were dropping her off, our Hudson was staying at that same hospital and receiving his miraculous surgery for his Spina Bifida (at that exact time!!) We were just yards from our boy and had no idea!!! WOW, God is so amazing!
By the way, that sweet girl (who amazingly also has dextrocardia) went home to her amazing family a few weeks ago…..PRAISE GOD!
So, why do I share all of this?
Because, THAT is how the Lord supernaturally revealed HIS will to us. He made it clear through many confirmations that he was our son. A PEACE overwhelmed us with each GOD story!
But, honestly speaking, it was not how we had planned it or imagined it!
We had always envisioned us going back and adopting another sweet child from Harmony House Foster home. That special place is SO near and dear to our hearts that I just could NOT imagine us not adopting from there again! But, oh how God’s plans can be SO different from ours. I could never picture adopting from a State Run Orphanage after the amazing experience we had adopting from a Christian run Foster Home.
BUT…..I am realizing that It is so important to always surrender your desires, because if you don’t you could MISS His desires!! No, I would not have chosen this path …but, we are NOT the one who ultimately chooses. GOD chooses for us! I am thankful He opened our eyes to our child!
He is OUR SON, and WE ARE SO BLESSED!
SO many children wait ALL over China…TOO MANY ….
So, you thought I was done, right??? Well……now I want to share something else that blows us away! I want to share how Our boy is a literal walking miracle…. The doctor who reviewed his file made this very clear to us. His words: “with being repaired only a year ago, the fact that all he has is a slight limp is miraculous”
Basically, our boy shouldn’t even be able to walk…..a miracle indeed!!!!
And, don’t you just love it when the Lord gives you a greater glimpse into HIS plans and why he does such things….when in the moment it makes NO sense?
So, let me explain what I mean. We put our house on the market shortly after Brian got a new job so we could move close to where he works. We felt the Lord was making it very clear for us to move!
For three months, our house did not sell. We couldn’t understand why? But, after we saw our son, we knew why! If we would have sold our home, we would have been displaced in temporary housing and would have not been able to start a homestudy right away for our boy. GOD KNEW!!!!!
So, we took it off the market and decided to put it back on when our homestudy was near to being completed! That way, all we would possibly need would be a homestudy update later! We still feel the Lord is making it clear HE wants us to move, but I have NO idea how He will work all of this craziness out! We are praying that we get a good offer on our home so that we can use some of that equity to help with the exorbitant adoption costs.
Furthermore, speaking of costs, lets just say we have no idea how we will financially pay to bring our son home, but we do know we serve a GOD who owns ALL the money in the world. And, HE is able! Adoption is near and dear to HIS heart and we know HE will make this happen! We trust HIM and walk forward in faith (with shaky knees)!
I have just chosen to SURRENDER all my plans to HIM, knowing and believing that HIS PLANS are far better than anything we could ever imagine!
We share all of this, our son’s story for TWO main reasons. We want to gather prayer warriors who will specifically pray for our son and pray him home!
Please pray with us that the Lord would keep Hudson safe, healthy and well loved and cared for as we rush to bring him home. That he would be prepared in a supernatural way to lose all he has ever known and gain the love of a forever family.
Please pray for a speedy adoption process so our sweet boy does not have to wait any longer….6 years is TOO long without a mama or baba, or to be called a “SON”.
We also ask that you join us in prayer for the Lord to miraculously provide financially for us to adopt. We know he has a plan…..and we are so excited to see HIM work!
…. And, ultimately we share this story to GIVE HIM GLORY!
This is ALL HIS STORY, not ours. He has orchestrated this amazing miracle. We offer it back to HIM! We did nothing to deserve this blessing but consider it such an honor to be chosen to be Hudson’s forever family! May the Lord prepare us in every way possible to be the best for him, and may HE blaze through every mountain on this long journey to our boy!
To Him be the glory!
If you would like to be a part of Hudson’s hope and miracle, You can click here to order an awesome shirt to help bring our boy home!
We’re selling these awesome Superman Was Adopted shirts, with Ephesians 1:5 reference on them…
We serve a Super God who grants us a Super inheritance through our adoption into His family!
Please get your shirt here and celebrate with us the the incredible miracle of adoption!
So he decided long ago to adopt us. He adopted us as his children with all the rights children have. He did it because of what Jesus Christ has done. It pleased God to do it.
(Eph 1:5)
We are so thankful and grateful for your prayers and support for our son!!
HIs sweet smile. Can't wait to see him in yalls arms. Praying everything worls out with adoption and house stuff. God's got this!!!!!
WOW!!! Our stories are SO similar especially that God wrote them both!!! SO thankful you have a new son and he is chosen. Blessings and love on your journey!!! XOXO