The McMakin Family (China)
My husband and I were married November 2008. Three months after being married I had my first surgery for endometriosis. After 3 years of pain and problems, I had my 2nd surgery in September 2011. At this point we became very comfortable with just us, meaning no kids, and resided to being okay with not having children.
At the beginning of 2014, my husband and I began praying for God to take us beyond ourselves and beyond comfort. We started trying to live with less so we could give more. We also realized we never consulted God about His plan for children, and that we had made a decision out of comfort. Therefore, we began praying for God to make His plan for children clear to us (foster, adopt, advocate & serve).
Also at the beginning of 2014, I was part of a small group (just 4 of us) that continued a study on the Sermon on the Mount (we had finished the Beatitudes portion before Christmas). One night in February after Bible study, our group leader Ashley mentioned that she heard about Storyteller Missions (formerly ACT) and a trip to China in October. She felt that we should all pray about going. I laughed as I mentioned this idea to my husband and said that was crazy. The next few weeks, however, God began a work in my heart. In March 2014 I said 'yes' to God's call to go to Qingyang, Gansu, China through America World's Storyteller missions department.
I was among 7 other ladies in SC that joined the total team of 18 that traveled last October 2014. As our team began to meet weekly to plan and prepare ourselves spiritually, mentally, and emotionally for our trip, my husband and I wondered if God going to use this preparation and learning about orphan care and God's command to care for orphans as a way to make His plan for children clear to us.
On October 20th He made His plan very clear. He showed me our daughter!
I can't explain the supernatural love that I felt for her the moment I saw her. I was not prepared for such emotions as I honestly never thought my obedience to serve in that orphanage would result in a call to adoption. I knew I wanted my husband to also feel called by God as I did, and not influenced by me, so the only thing I mentioned to my husband while in China was that I felt God wanted us to pray more specifically about adoption--and I did express my fondness of a precious girl with cerebral palsy.
The day after returning home from China my husband asked if he could show me some research he had been doing while I was away. I quickly fell into tears as I realized my husband had become quite the expert in adoption and cerebral palsy. I immediately showed him Ru's pictures and told him how God created this love in me for her, and that I think He was calling us to adopt.
We spent the next 10 days in prayer and discussions. We also inquired about Ru through America World Adoption (AWAA) only to find out that she had never been registered for adoption. Our hearts sank to hear this but proceeded on as we knew this was our daughter. We officially said yes to God's call to adopt on November 6th and submitted our application to AWAA.
Once approved, AWAA asked the orphanage if they would register Ru for adoption. They agreed! The rest of our story follows along the typical adoption time lines and we just received our RA to adopt Ru this past Thursday, 10/1!
We pray all falls into place so we can travel in December to be with her by Christmas. Below is a link to a video we created to announce our RA so we could share God's story of Ru.
- Lindsey McMakin