Adopted for Life: Fingerprints of the Lost Children in China

I'm going to attempt to write a short series of blog entries on what I consider to be remarkable artwork sketched by my daughter, Annie. She submitted a few pieces to her professors at Cal Poly that reflect upon her journey to find Qing Zu Qiao (Poppy Mae) in China. When I first laid eyes upon these creations my heart was moved and I caught myself with a lump in my throat. Annie captured the essence of true art in these drawings, letting her hands be guided by her soul and thereby penetrating the psyche of others.

This piece of artwork is the first of many, entitled "Finger- prints of the Lost Children in China". Annie remem- bers our first flight across the Pacific Ocean to this foreign land as an entire family. We were numbered at five back then, and were so excited and scared at the same time. And the numbers of children without mommies and daddies in this country alone is staggering, over 13,000,000. So, literally, their fingerprints are scattered throughout the terrain, from coast to western border and highlands to lowlands. And here we were, five little foreigners ourselves traversing into a sea of 1.3 billion people to find one tiny girl but fifteen months old in order that she might not be lost any longer. What an honor, what a privilege to even be permitted onto this foreign soil in the first place, and then to take one of their own that we might be blessed? They were so kind, so gracious to give us one of the greatest gifts of all time. We'll forever be indebted to the country of China, it's government and the generosity of their culture.

For those of you that know our story, you also know that this trip was not without hardship. In fact, the experience was without question the most trying of our entire lives. We hope to never have to go through something like that again, and we hope no one else has to undergo what we went through. But if we had to do it all over again, meaning that we'd have to endure the heartache to its highest degree in order to gain what we did, I don't think there's a one of us that would balk at the travails. Love is risky, love is hard, love is scary, and love is painful. But love is also rewarding, love is easy, love is peaceful, and love is healthy. In fact, apart from it existence itself would be meaningless and hopeless. And if there's one thing we've learned from Poppy, among the countless, it's that we were created to give ourselves away. Every morning I wake up and see her perfectly precious face sleeping next to Victoria's I'm reminded of that.

So the next time we're called to venture out and put our lives into the hands of another in order give ourselves away and find a lost soul, I pray we're bold enough to take the risk to gain a reward that will be stored up in heaven. When we get there we'll lay it at the feet of our King, Jesus.