Grace Abounds....God has led us to our Rosalie!

Dear Faithful Prayer Partners,

Oh, if you only knew the prayers we have prayed ....that when our adoption agency made the match...that God would lead them to the daughter He promised us in Sept. of 2007...one child, out of the 1.3 billion people in China. The process is quite simple...when the Chinese Council of Adoption Affairs sends a group of available orphans to our agency, they make the appropriate matches based on each family's profile. After this is done, there are always some children who do not get matched. This is usually due to the high level of special needs or the ages of the children. These unmatched children are sent out to the waiting families in order for them to review. Month after month as we have looked into the faces of these children we have asked the Lord, "Oh, Lord, if one of these children is Rosalie, let us know the very second we look into her face." It seems odd to imagine that on a computer screen, you will meet your child for the first time, but that's just the way it happened on January 5. We had just come home from being out and I sat down quickly to send someone a brief email who was awaiting a document from me. The amazing thing is that prior to this event, I awoke that same morning with an overwhelming desire to pray for Rosalie...stronger than normal! When I sat down at the computer and sent off the document to my friend, I saw that I had just received an email from our agency. Before I even opened the email, the Holy Spirit confirmed that I would come face to face in a matter of seconds with Rosalie. Sure enough with Margaret Ann passing behind me, I gasped and put my hands to my heart. My heart was beating out of my body! Margaret Ann stopped to check on me as I alarmed her and she too saw the face of the most beautiful little Chinese girl you have ever seen! It was beyond what I could have asked or imagined! Peter and the rest of the family most definitely agreed.

Over the next few days, Peter and I met with Dr. Charles Trant, a pediatric cardiologist, who helped us understand her special need a little better. She was born with a hole in her heart...the wall of her two ventricular chambers. She has already undergone open heart surgery to patch the hole. As we went through the process, required by our agency and the only wise thing to do when adopting a child with a special need, of getting thorough medical education about her specific need, I just prayed for God to hold her for us...her file was wide open for ANY family to lock in. I rested after a day or two of feeling a little nervous and was reminded in a note from Kathleen that NO ONE will be able to lock her file except us if she is indeed the one God has chosen for our family.

After going through this process and praying every step of the way, we called our agency on Tuesday, Jan. 20, the day we woke up to snow falling, and asked to lock her file. Her Chinese name is Liu Jing Xue (pronounced "Lu Jing Zoo"). We were told that our agency was not in the office on that day because they are located just miles outside of DC, and since it was inauguration day, they were asked to work out of their homes for the day. I ran to the computer and emailed our family coordinator, praying she would respond. Sure enough, an hour or so later, I got an email letting us know that her file was locked and the name KENNEBECK was on it. I just jumped up and down for joy!! What a day to celebrate what God has done!!

Over these past few months, God has been working in our hearts, preparing us for her. We had become very open to an older child and felt somewhat certain that He would send a child older than we had originally anticipated. Rosalie is 4 1/2 years old. She and Sam are 5 days apart in age (she is 5 days younger than Sam). That sure did work out perfectly as Sam has been talking about his younger sister for a year now. She just barely made it in age. So, I guess our "twins" will be an African American male and a Chinese female- a picture of the family of Christ! I laughed when my friend Graham reminded me of the day that Sam is 6'7" and Rosalie is 5'0" and we introduce them as twins...how funny!!

We will be able to post photos of her once we get our travel dates from China (China regulations). This may take a few months. We are unsure of when we will travel to get her but it will most likely be April or May. Until then, we ask for you to please pray for God to prepare each of our hearts to meet one another. How blessed we are to know that love speaks every language. Although we will learn a few Mandarin phrases in order to communicate some basic things to Rosalie, we will leave China and come home to America speaking two different languages. Pray for this transition to be anointed by the Holy Spirit and for Him to translate for us.

We are so excited! It is hard to think we have to wait 4 or 5 months before we can meet her. But, it is reassuring that her Father in heaven will leave no detail unturned as we prepare to travel far east this spring.

Words can not explain the inner work God does in parents of an adopted child, prior to meeting our child. As a parent of three biological children, I know full well the connection of having a child grow within my body. The love for that child is so strong, right from conception. But, God in all His wisdom, knows that in order for parents to adopt, the inner work must be HUGE. After all, no baby is growing inside the mother. I was amazed at the work He did in our hearts to lead us to Sam...and then came the sleepless nights...the nights I wondered if it could be true...that God was calling us to parent a little girl from China. The work has been certainly bigger than us and the faith we have mustered has come only from the certainty of the call. We know that God equips the called instead of calling the equipped. Oh, we have cried out for "equipping" through this journey. But as we pray for our friends, who have left the comforts of America to bring the gospel to the jungles of Peru, the cities of China, the medical community, orphans, and citizens of Ukraine along with the translation of the gospel with Wycliffe, we are reminded of those who have gone ahead of us to take the leap of faith in order to fulfill the call of God. And then, the family, neighbors, and friends who daily live out the call of faith in our hurting world...the Word is one that unites us all, "I can do all things though Christ Who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

Thank you more than we can say for your faithful prayers. We will keep you updated as we get updates from our agency. Until then...

"Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows." Isaiah 1:17

In the joy of the Lord, who, through Christ,adopted me into the family of God,
Nancy for the Kennebecks