“When God Changed Our Child Request”

Today we’d like to share with you a story from the Hahn family who has been home from China for several months with their sweet daughter. Their story is just another example of how God works in the lives of families and how thankful we are that they listen to His “still, small voice” and allow that voice to speak to them instead of listening to the voice of fear.

The very week this family said “Yes, God, we are willing to take on that specific medical need” and added it to their “child request list” was the very week that a child-match became available and they received a call about a little girl with the exact medical need they had just added to their paperwork. God truly had orchestrated Gracie to be a part of their family.  Shannon shares more of their story below:

Although adoption was something that my husband and I talked about often before getting married, we continued to try to have a child on our own until months turned into years. After two years, we found ourselves having to choose between starting IVF and adopting, and it was then that the Lord put it VERY heavily on our hearts that we needed to adopt.

The following day I had my return visit with my infertility doctor and shared with her that we had decided to adopt. As I walked out of my appointment the song “God Is On the Move,” by 7eventh Time Down came into my mind. There’s a verse in the song that says…anytime the Gospel stirs a searching soul and someone says “send me, here I go” …it couldn’t have been more fitting! The moment Matt and I finally said yes to God everything seemed to fall into place. It’s amazing what God can do when you surrender your life to Him. Our adoption agency, choosing China, all those decisions weren’t even a “decision” for us. We both felt that was just where God was leading us, and we stood back in awe watching God move mountains before our very eyes.

It came as no surprise when on March 28th, 2018 we got the call from America World that we were in. We were accepted into the China program. One giant leap of faith, followed by the greatest blessing ever…we were expecting!

God took what we thought was a hopeless situation and gave us hope. We had given up on the idea of ever experiencing what it felt like to “expect” a child, and here we were being reminded of God’s love for us. Our infertility was always part of God’s plan. It wasn’t a mistake; He makes no mistakes! It wasn’t a plan B. Our daughter was always meant to be ours. God was simply waiting on us to take that first step in faith and trust Him that He would make beauty from ashes.

Each and every day we look at Gracie, we are reminded of His faithfulness and the work that He is doing in our lives. Gracie is such a sweet little girl with a beautiful heart and an amazing personality! We are so blessed to be her parents and we thank God daily for our little miracle! 

We love seeing God moments like this unfold in the lives of our adoptive families, and the Hahn’s adoption story is just one of many that we have seen over our last 25 years working in adoption. If you sense that God is calling your family to adopt, you can learn more about the process of adopting from China on our China overview page as well as learn about eligibility requirements for a China adoption.

If you are interested in learning more about adopting a child from China, please email our China team at China@awaa.org or you can reach us by phone at  800-429-3369 for more information.