There's so much about Samuel's story, so I'll share bits and pieces. We're now an open book about adoption, so please ask if you have other questions. If you want the simple, factual email version, ask Russ. If you want the emotional, wordy version, I'm your girl.
Why China?
My answer to strangers sometimes is simply that China is where our child was. We just had to go a little farther than some couples to bring our child home.
Once God confirmed that adoption was our next step, I don't even remember how He brought us around to the China program except that my mom is Chinese and we had friends who had recently adopted from China. Our friends graciously offered to meet with us one Sunday. I still see the location of that room where we met. After that meeting, Russ and I moved forward to find an agency.
How did we know Samuel was to be our son?
This part is kind of funny. So, I just had a "feeling" that God would add a son. We later realized that Joey's name means "He will add a son!" Hilarious, right?
The agency we chose had recently started a partnership with a couple of orphanages. As in, the president of our agency was still in China meeting about these partnerships when we started the process. All we knew was it meant that the agency families would have first access to the files from those specific orphanages. We envisioned a long list of sad faces begging us to bring them home. In God's funny, loving way, that first list contained 2 kids. Just 2. One was a girl and one was a boy.
Get this...we inquired to adopt both! My sweet husband sent that question to our agency. Imagine how that looked to our agency. They had just started the partnerships. There were only 2 kids on the list. This crazy couple asked to adopt BOTH KIDS ON THE LIST. Because of China's rules, we could only adopt one. Thank you, Jesus, for being our brakes! Remember He had only told us He would add a son at this point.
How did we get to adopt a boy?
We heard that boys were rare to be adopted because the Chinese culture tends to favor boys. Maybe that was part of our urgency or maybe it's just because Samuel was already a Webb in our hearts. We worked like crazy to get paperwork done to lock Samuel's file so that no one else could even consider adopting him. And by "we", I mean Russ! He was our "paper person" for both adoptions. Thankfully. He worked like a fierce Daddy lion to protect his son! In all actuality, there may have been no other families even considering Samuel. God was just growing that love and passion in our hearts for our Samuel.
NOTICE: I posted this picture in November of 2013. Joey drew
5 people in our family before we even went to bring Samuel
home. Tell me God doesn't have a sense of humor.
Here are just a few things I either didn't fully understand at the time of Samuel's adoption or hadn't processed until recently (as in 2018).
1) My mom had been treated differently as a child because of her Chinese background. She grew up in a small town where minorities were treated different. I mean they were discriminated against and made to feel like they deserved less. On this trip, my mom "fit in" so well. She even tried out her Cantonese. Our little family was the one that was "different". I don't understand what my mom's childhood was like and I probably never will. Thankfully Joey didn't see those same treatments while in China. Quite the opposite. We had to fight off on-lookers who were enamored by Joey's blue eyes! If anyone was uncomfortable, we never knew it. We just smiled at people and invited them to play with our kids and take pictures with them.
2) My mom had been told lies in her adulthood. She was told that others were embarrassed of her because of her Chinese background. Yet, here was her only daughter and son-in-law in China with the sole purpose of adopting a Chinese child. And better yet, she had been invited to come along to see the beauty of the country that she herself was born from. You think God was combating those lies on that trip? We not only spoke words against those lies, but God was showing my mom Truth. I made her a detailed book when we returned to let her know how much it meant for her to be with us.
My mom and kids skyping with my dad back in Arkansas.
It was tricky to find a convenient time with a 13 hour time difference.
3) I never realized on that trip that Russ had gotten a "feeling" that we would be back for another child. Now, we can call that confirmation from the Lord, but it was just a "feeling" back then. In fact, our Stella was in that orphanage we visited. She was literally in the next room and we never even knew it! For awhile after Stella came home, it pained me that we could've picked her up on that same trip. If we had, it would have messed up other great plans. Trust me...you'll have to keep reading.
4) Had Stella's file been ready, we wouldn't have gotten to make an impact on Samuel's nanny (and hopefully some of her co-workers). You see, Samuel's nanny thought the world of him. She still does. You know how I know? Because we are in touch with her and I send her pictures of him and Stella. She comments on them every single time. During Samuel's adoption, we visited the orphanage and we let Nanny Zhou hold Samuel. What she didn't realize at the time is that she would be holding him again 18 months later. Maybe it she had known it would have eased some of her pain. I made Nanny Zhou a book (yeah, big surprise there), but we were not yet connected on the app that allows us to stay in touch today. So, clearly we had to go back! Also, one of Stella's friends was depending on us!
She could not get him out fast enough!
Nanny Zhou had tears her eyes!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnwaoIzD1Xg
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him,
who have been called according to his purpose."
Romans 8:28
Love it! Told you I would be following!
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