A Blessing From Obedience: A Family Story
One year ago today, the Weldon family met their son Benjamin for the first time. In May, we celebrated with them as they reflected on him being home for 6 months. Now today marks another milestone—one year with Benjamin in their arms; one year of getting to know him, one year of sharing their lives with this precious little boy. Please take a moment to read more about all that God has done to bring them to this point in their journey. Thank you, Chris & Jodi, for giving us a glimpse into your story over this past year!
A year ago, we found ourselves in Xi’an, China waiting to meet a 3 ½-year-old little boy that would become our son. Before we get to that, we need to back up to how it all began.
My husband and I talked on and off about adopting throughout our marriage, but there were always reasons why we couldn’t; finances, the house isn’t big enough, we already have special needs children, etc. Fast forward to 2016, our youngest just graduated high school and we decided that it was a good time for my month-long yearly mission trips to become month-long quarterly mission trips. I couldn’t wait to share the news with the founders of the ministry that I volunteered with. That summer we went to a foster and adoption expo. We were only looking to see what agencies were out there for fostering and which ones had foster to adopt programs or so we thought.
I soon found myself looking through the brochures that had children needing families. I noticed that two of our previous foster children were now available for adoption and it broke my heart. I mentioned it to my husband, only to find out that he too had been looking through the brochures. This led us to start talking about adoption and once again we were listing the reasons why we couldn’t. My biggest reason being I wouldn’t be able to take so many mission trips or take them for a month at a time. Despite using this excuse, I found myself doing more research on international adoption. I was comparing countries’ programs, agencies, requirements for the parents, etc. I was looking at advocacy pages and showing my husband children’s pictures. So, we prayed and I continued to do research.
It was fall and I was on a mission trip in El Salvador having Skype calls with people from America World Adoption. I would then Skype with my husband sharing with him what I had learned. It didn’t take long for us to realize what God was calling us to do. In November of 2016, we signed on with America World to their China adoption program.
In April of 2017, I saw the file of a little boy that I just knew was ours. I didn’t need to read his file, there was no doubt in my mind that this little boy was our son. So, I prayed that if he was really our son that he would have a birthday in the month that we have the most birthdays. I opened his file and the first thing I noticed was not only did he have a birthday in the month that we have the most birthdays, but it was listed as that as the same as my grandpap’s. For me, that was all I needed. We had the file reviewed by a doctor and discussed with our social worker as his special need wasn’t on our original medical conditions list. Through prayer and research, we felt it was something we could handle. We let America World know that we wanted to move forward in the process.
November 12, 2017 finally arrived. We left Beijing with the other families in our group to head to Xi’an. While on the bus, the guide told us that one child was already at the offices waiting. We walked into the building and didn’t even have the opportunity to use the restroom or sit as our son was being walked to us by the orphanage director and a nanny. We were presented with a little boy that seemed so somber and had tears in his eyes. He came to us with a hesitance, but willingly. Within minutes this quiet little boy was happy and filled with laughter, which we soon learned that laughing was and still is his coping mechanism.
I’m so glad that we finally said yes. That we were finally obedient to what God was calling us to do. That we set aside our plans because they were not the ones, He had for us. Our obedience brought a very joyful, loud, full of energy blessing into our lives. One that we are so thankful for. We hear all the time how blessed our son is to have us as a family. My response to that is we are the ones blessed to have him.
Our staff at America World always love to hear from our families. We love to rejoice with you in those early months home, smile alongside you when you celebrate your children’s “firsts”, and walk with you through any difficult moments that may arise.
Our relationship with your family doesn’t end when your adoption is finalized and you are home. We would like to encourage you to send your Family Coordinator updates, stories or exciting moments, as we love to continue cheering your family on in this next phase of being home with your son or daughter. If you have something that you would love to share about your child or family that you think we could feature on our blog to encourage other families, please reach out and let us know. We love hearing from you!
If your family is interested in learning more about adoption or considering an adoption in China, please contact our China staff at China@awaa.org for more information. Families can view our China Adoption page for more information on children who are currently available and waiting for families.
Are you considering another adoptive country? Email Info@awaa.org or call us at 800-429-3369 with questions about our Haiti or India programs. Great information is available about all our programs on our Programs Page too.
PRE-APPLY FOR FREE for assistance in qualifying or fill out our full APPLICATION now to begin your adoption process.
