God's Perfect "Thai-ming"

Hi everyone! Well, I thought I (Jay) better get back to doing some blog entries since Chandra is the main writer for this blog. With the title of this blog you can tell that I'm a teacher of youngsters that is always trying to come up with some goofy catch-phrase or pun!! Needless to say, we are very excited at the prospects of adoption from Thailand. I'm two weeks away exactly from my 42nd birthday and the thought of being a father is very exciting and humbling at the same time. We had been pursuing adoption information and attending various meetings of different agencies since last April. Since that time we were focused mainly on the direction of pursuing an infant from China. Also, we had the idea float through our heads of a child from Colombia. Then, a few weeks ago we stumbled upon this agency in Seattle, WACAP. We requested a packet, "child catalog" for lack of a better phrase, that listed pictures and very brief descriptions of waiting children or children with special needs. Both of us worked our way through the packet at different times and circled children that we would be interested in pursuing. It turns out that we had many similar choices, including this 11-year-old girl from Thailand. Since we had strictly been thinking about infants or toddlers it was interesting to see that God was placing an interest in both our hearts for this older girl. It appears that this girl is healthy, but has been waiting for many years to be adopted. We called WACAP and requested further information on this girl and another girl from India. After reading the detailed literature on the girl from India we realized that she had specific needs that we didn't feel that we were specifically called to address. However, when we looked through the much more detailed information on "Penny" we started seeing the fingerprints of God in many ways. It turns out that this girl has similar interests as both of us. In addition, she is from the very community in the entirety of the large country of Thailand that Chandra had visited for a week in 1999. Another interesting "fingerprint" is the strong impression that God laid upon Chandra's heart and mind since November of 2006 regarding praying for the girls in Thailand and India that are being sold into slavery and prostitution. She specifically asked the Lord, "How can I help in this matter?" One thing I love so very much about my wife is her receptivity to God's leading. She certainly "listens" to God, something I wish that I was better at, as well. As for another thing, we discovered that this month's Christianity Today has a cover article specifically addressing the plight of Thai girls that are susceptible to prostitution. Lastly, and the "fingerprint" that made a huge impression on me, is that we just discovered that effective in 2007 China is changing their adoption rules; they now have a weight limit just like Korea, and something that would disqualify us at this time, they require a "family net worth" of $80,000, which means we would have to own a home. That is why I called this entry "God's perfect Thai-ming."

Now comes the process of filling out numerous forms and waiting. We've heard that the Thai government can take a VERY long time to make decisions. Please pray with us that they will go against their nature and be a governmental "Speedy-Gonzales." Another prayer request is wisdom in education for "Penny" if she is the one for us. It would be very convenient and good if she could go to Liberty Common School with me. However, depending on her level of English fluency, that could be a difficulty. She has been studying English for about a year now. She says her favorite subject is Math, which was always a strong point for me. Excitingly, she has interests in music and art, which is another "fingerprint" for both of us. Lastly in this entry, one of the things that these agencies try to tell you is to not get too emotionally attached early on just in case it doesn't work out. They obviously don't know Chandra and me. When I first saw the CD-ROM copy of a Windows Media Player file video of "Penny," I started to get choked up and cry, thinking about that she might be my future daughter. I'm amazed that God has called me to this pursuit at this time in my life. When I think about the things that I was spending my time pursuing 20-plus years ago in college, I'm truly honored and humbled that God has entrusted to me a ministry to so many children. Through this realization, I'm starting to see the wonderful joy that God is bringing our way in adoption and that there was a definite reason since the beginning of time that we weren't able to have our own children naturally. As this process continues to move forward, we look forward to continuing this blog and hopefully figuring out how to place pictures in the text body of the blog. Take care and Happy New Year!

Jay :)