it was written in his book.

your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
Psalm 139: 16

One year ago today we received our pre-approval from China to adopt Ni Chou Zhou - who is now Kristiana Hope (which means "Anointed Hope"): our little Tia. This meant that as long as we were who we said we were (and we obviously were/are!) we were approved to be Tia's Forever Family.

It would have been my Mom & Dad's 50th anniversary. A Happy/Sad moment really. In Chinese adoption we call that a red thread. Those moments give me chills . . . those times in our lives where we are so aware that God is orchestrating our lives with his eternal purposes in mind.

What an amazing year this has been! I'm so glad we finally have our Princess home. We feel incredibly blessed and honored to raise Tia in our family - and to think it was all written in God's book before we even came to be!

Starfish . . .

We found a starfish at the beach today and Tia wanted to touch it. She was so interested in it and kept going back to it when we threw it back in the water. When I got home and looked at this photo of her holding it I was reminded of the starfish story often used about adoption.

One morning after a particularly fearsome storm, a man arose early and decided to go for a walk along the sea. As he neared the beach, the early riser saw an old man in the distance slowly, yet purposely, ambling down the shoreline. As he watched, the old man stopped, picked something up, and tossed it into the ocean. Then, the old man slowly straightened himself up, walked several more feet, stooped down, and once again picked up something, which he tossed into the sea. Intrigued, the early riser moved closer. As he drew near, he realized suddenly what the old man was doing. Littered all down the shoreline, as far as the eye could see, were thousands upon thousands of starfish cast out from the ocean by the fury of the now-passed storm. As the early riser watched, the old man bent down, gently picked up a small, helpless starfish, and tossed it back into the ocean. He repeated the same process every few feet. After a minute or two, the early riser approached the old man. "Good morning, sir" he said. "I couldn't help notice what you're doing. I commend you for what you're trying to do, but the storm has washed up thousands of starfish on this beach. You can't possibly save them all! What possible difference do you hope to accomplish?"

The old man paused for a long time, pondering the early riser's question. Finally, without saying a word, he bent down, picked up a starfish, and tossed it far into the ocean. "It made a difference to that one," he said.