He Knows Her Name

Last week we were away for October holiday, and I still have some photos I'd like to post from that trip.  We arrived home Sunday early afternoon with just enough time for me to repack my bag and leave on a very different type of journey, one that I have hoped I would have a chance to make since I began volunteering with Baobei Foundation a year and a half ago.

My journey, with a dear friend who is one of Baobei's Chinese staff, was to take one of the children who has been in our care here in Shanghai to meet her forever family.  This beautiful girl was abandoned at birth because of the sac on her back that marked her as having spina bifida.  Baobei provided for her surgery and follow up care, and she has been in a wonderful, loving foster home here since then.

This precious girl was chosen off a waiting child (also called special needs or special focus) list from an adoption agency in the US.  This was a miracle in itself, as children with spina bifida have quite varied surgery outcomes, and this child has a long road ahead of her physically.  Though she is nearly two years old, her legs are floppy and useless.  There is great hope for her, but it will not be easy.  Despite the odds, she was chosen, even in her weakness.  To become a daughter.  To belong to a family forever.  No longer an orphan.

And so yesterday morning, I found myself in a taxi on the way to the civil affairs office in her birth province, to take her to meet her family.  Scott and I waited in a civil affairs office for Gwen, nearly six years ago.  I have described that experience as being like being in the delivery room giving birth, but with other families "delivering" at the same time.  Nothing like waiting for that first glimpse of your child, the one you've dreamed of and prayed for.  Here I was again, but this time bringing the child rather than waiting for one.

The civil affairs office was a 20 minute drive from the hotel where we had spent the night, so I was busy keeping Little One entertained on the way.  I gave her my iPhone and she happily pressed the button and slid her little finger across the screen to change it.  After a few minutes of button pressing, I decided to put some music on for her and set a kids' album of music I have onto shuffle.  

The song that was randomly selected on the shuffle mode was this one below.  A song that God chose for Little One and I to hear, to remind that it is He that loves and chooses.


I have a Maker
He formed my heart
Before even time began,
My life was in His hands.

He knows my name
He knows my every thought
He sees each tear that falls
And hears me when I call.


Little One may have been abandoned at birth.  She may have a broken body that will never be perfect by the world's standard.  Her name was about to change...  but her Maker has known her name and has had a plan for her.  From the beginning!  I sat in the taxi listening to the words of this simple song with tears running down my cheeks.  I looked at her beautiful face, and the first moments with Gwen in a civil affairs office six years ago, and the first moments as a family that Little One and her parents were about to experience melted together in my heart.

The next 90 minutes at civil affairs were wonderful.  Parents and children were brought together from worlds apart.  Little One was immediately swallowed up in love and was able to give love in return. 

What a gift, to see again God's greater plan.  To get a glimpse of it.  To stand on the outside and see Him working quiet miracles, one life at a time.