I am an adopted daughter

On Tuesday, June 3 we received the call we'd been waiting for: Our court date is scheduled for June 17! Two weeks had never seemed so imminent and so distant at the same time (well, at least not in this way). Less than one week from now, Kami will legally be our daughter. We will legally be the parents of this precious 7-year-old girl on the other side of the world who God made and formed for His glory, whose life He planned from the foundation of the world.

Now that we have this momentous date marked on our calendar, everything feels different. We're reminded that the whirlwind trip to Bulgaria in February was in fact real. There is a legal transaction preparing to take place that will forever change the lives of everyone involved. In a courtroom in a post-communist country, in a language we don't understand, a representative will appear on Mason's and my behalf. He or she will stand and state that we are willing, able and qualified to assume lifelong parental responsibility for Kamelia. Next week, she will no longer be under the guardianship of the orphanage director. A transfer of guardianship will take place and she will be given a new name with a new life to follow. Though we feel we are her parents already, a legal transaction is necessary to recognize this relationship as legitimate.

I'm no lawyer, but there is one other legal transaction that I'm familiar with. It's the one that bought me over from the dominion of darkness and into marvelous light, the one where my debt was paid in full. It's the one where I stood helpless and guilty before a holy God, an orphan in spirit, locked up behind walls of sin that separated me from Him. But this Judge was compassionate in His justice. In order to make a way for people of every tribe, nation and language to walk free, He sent His Son to live a spotless life - without even the slightest stain of sin - and then offered Him to die a cruel death, taking the full penalty for our sin, bearing all His wrath, and tearing down the insurmountable barrier between us. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin, but while we were still sinners Christ died once for all so that those who live can live not for themselves, but for Him who died and was raised to life. This new life is available to all who believe. With this new life in Christ, where it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, I stand before the Judge now forgiven because my sins have been cast as far as the east is from the west! I have a new name and am a completely new creation. My old life is gone and before me is a brand new life. Salvation is a transfer of ownership of a person's life from Satan to God. I have been bought with a price, and who the Son sets free is free indeed. Not only this, but now this holy God calls me His child. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! 

I recently read back in my prayer journal to read what God was doing in my heart during the months He was growing Kamelia in her birthmother's womb. I went journal hunting fully expecting to find something breathtaking, and what I found in my entry from April 11, 2007 was sufficient. Kami was a new resident of the orphanage on that day. She was just a couple of weeks old, a precious, beautiful, tiny newborn. Oh, how I wish we could have swooped in and carried her out of there in our arms that day! But we were still a month away from our wedding day and never could have guessed that our 4th child was already born. It is so amazing to look back and see how God has knit our lives together! I wrote these words to God on that April day, seven years ago, after studying Romans chapter 11:

"I am not one of Your chosen people by birth, as the Jews, but rather by adoption."
"I am an adopted daughter."
"You truly were and are the King of the Jews, and through adoption and Your opening of the gospel to Gentiles, you are also my King."

How incredible to me that at the very moment I penned those words, my oldest baby, who would enter our family through adoption, had already arrived. This realization hurts my heart because I am mentally running through all the times I know she cried and nobody held her, she was hungry and nobody fed her, she was alone and nobody came to her. When we go to get her in a few weeks, we will seriously be making up for lost time. We are bringing into our family a child who has been seriously wounded. But we serve a God who makes all things new, brings beauty from ashes, and can redeem even the most devastating circumstances. We have great hope for Kamelia's healing, but we also know that the road will be difficult. By bringing a severely wounded child into our family and embracing her, we embrace all of her suffering and will come face to face with it. Please keep her in prayer for peace, comfort, and hope as she waits for us; and please pray that all 5 of us (and many more, when you factor in extended family) who are waiting to welcome her into our home will be sensitive, patient, loving, and able to minister to her unique needs.

Last but not least, we certainly pray that we will pass court on Tuesday. I haven't heard of any cases where a family hasn't passed court, but still we will be eager to hear the news next week! We hope to receive travel dates quickly after the 17th, though in some cases it can be about 3 weeks before dates are passed down and airline tickets can be bought. 

Thank you for standing with us in prayer and excitement during this wild time in our family's life!