How Our Journey Began

Our journey began in November 2007 just a little over 3 months after arriving home from China with our 3rd China blessing, Grace. I had read on one of my yahoo groups about the children on All God's Children's Special needs listing and how precious they were. So I of course had to go take a peek. Of course one little face caught my attention. I read about the 1 year old little boy with "malformed arms and legs", and that sweet little face took hold of me. I tried to ignore it but over the next several days I kept going back to that sweet picture. Then on November 6th after a women's event at my church I had told my friend about him and showed her his picture. She thought he was precious but her heart had already been stolen by another little boy. Driving home that night my mind kept going to that little boy and as I was thinking about him the name "Gideon" popped into my head. I can't say it was spoken to me but suddenly I heard that name. I thought to myself, maybe that is the name this little boy is supposed to have. I went to bed that night thinking about this child and woke up thinking about him and the name. I went to the computer and looked at his picture again and studied his little clubbed feet and hands and read the description that he could not move or bend his arms or legs. Then I thought I need to look up the meaning of the name Gideon. I typed in meaning of name Gideon and chose a site. This is what I read: "a mighty warrior, a hero who wins battles through faith and knowledge not by the strength of arms". I knew instantly that the name given to this little boy with no strength in his arms was given to him by God and he was to be a mighty warrior who would win many battles in his life. Now the question was is he meant to be our child or am I supposed to find him a home. I decided to tell Tim about him. I told him all about him first and showed him his picture and then I told him about the name God had given me. Then I asked Tim, " do you think we could do it again"? He said "sure if God provides all of the money". I said well God has started to provide already because I saw where he had a $6500 grant. Tim again said well If the Lord provides. As the days went on I began to pray that the Lord would let us know whether we were to pursue this little boy? I knew financially we could not feasibly do this. We were in debt from our previous 3 adoptions and only home just a little over 3 months with the last. I wrote in my journal nightly and told God all the reasons why we couldn't possibly adopt another child. We didn't have the money, we already had 6 children and Tim was currently without a job. But then as I wrote I looked down at the page in my journal in the corner where a scripture was inscripted and this is what it said:

"Lord, help me to remember it's not by my power, nor by my might, but by your Spirit that I accomplish anything worthwhile." Zechariah 4:6. Well baby Gideon is definitely worthwhile! I realized that no it wouldn't be because of anything that we did that we would bring him home but it would be all God. He would be sure that all of the Glory went to the Lord himself. What a testimony we would have. While it all looked completely impossible to make it happen, we would be able to say that God made it possible because "all things are possible with Christ".

Well I decided to email All God's Children and see what happened next. After filling out their questionaire they determined that we qualified in all areas except for the fact we had not been home 6 months yet from our last adoption, therefore we would not be permitted to pursue his adoption. They would not give on this. We would not be eligible until January 24th. I was crushed but prayed that If God had a plan for another family for Gideon then I would pray that they came forward to adopt him. And if God wanted us to adopt him then he would still be available in 3 months. So I prayed and weekly I would email Tiffany at All God's Children to see if he had a family yet. She would tell me no not yet but we are praying. I began to tell Tiffany about how I felt God had led me to this little boy and I told him that God had given us the name Gideon. Tiffany said she would pray for us and that the right family would come along. I continued to correspond with Tiffany each week. One week she told me that a family was interested and it looked good. But then the next week she told me that they had decided it was just too big for them. Tiffany told me she had done her quiet time that night reading the story of Gideon and how he had become a mighty warrior. She said she felt that Gideon was meant to be ours so she had talked again with her supervisor. They decided that even though it was only December 23rd that they were going to let us begin the process of adoption right after the first of the year. I was ecstatic because I just knew in my heart this little boy was ours. Now came all the obstacles. Tim still wasn't working, we were still broke and there were issues regarding our homestudy. The Lord had his work cut out for him.

Well we filled out our application and began our LOI (Letter of Intent) and Family Summary and Treatment Plan. We secured a homestudy agency and the process began. We soon got all of his pictures and paperwork and sent them to our pediatrician to view. She called me and told me that she believed our Gideon had a condition called "Arthrogryposis". A condition where the joints are frozen or stiff and unable to move and this is manifested by his clubbed feet and hands. She felt his prognosis to ever walk or use his hands was poor because these children typically begin treatment right after birth and he would be 2 years old before we ever brought him home. She told me to consider my age and my other children as he would demand a considerable amount of time and energy. I was devastated. I called my dear friend and prayer warrior Bethany and told her what I had been told. We cried together and I admitted I was afraid. Could I really handle this at my age. Is this fair to my other children. Is this really what God wants? We prayed together and she reminded me what God had already done in leading us to him and giving me the name and supplying $6500 already. We cried some more and I said I would pray more about it. I told Tim and he was hesitant too. We thought and prayed for a few days. Tiffany called and told me that more money had been given toward this child's adoption so we now would have $8500 in grant money. But we were still praying. Finally I asked Tim, well, what do you think we should do about Gideon, should we try to adopt him? His answer was, "of course we should". Our journey begins. We had to climb over more obstacles with our homestudy and actually had to begin all over with another homestudy agency in April just when we were almost finished. But Tim in the mean time had a job, we had fundraisers and were raising the money we needed and now we are waiting for our immigration approval to send ourDossier to China. We have had several updates on our precious child through other families who have traveled and an official update from the orphanage itself. We are so excited and blessed and cannot wait until the day we have our mighty warrior home with us. Here is his information:

Name: Yue Meng Niu (they call him Niu Niu)

DOB: 6/24/06

SWI: Yugan SWI in the Jiangxi Province

His name will be Gideon James Meng Niu