Our Father has blessed us with three pretty cool kids, all brought to us by the miracle of adoption. Their stories are different, and yet through each story, we see clearly our Father’s faithfulness and care.
Our middle child, Grace Noel, was the first to join the Wickersham clan. In September of 2005 Grace was brought to her county’s orphanage as a newborn, and she lived in foster care until the day we traveled to Hubei Province to meet her. Grace was nine months when we first met her and seemed to have been well cared for by her foster family. She was developmentally on track, emotionally resilient, chubby, and alert. Although Grace was quite reserved in her first few days with us, by the end of our first week together she was already giggling and wrestling with me. In the following months, she bonded quickly to us, and her transition seemed nearly seamless. Grace is now nine and in the 3rd grade. She is bright and creative, forever performing skits for her family to watch. She enjoys school and playing outside on her scooter or on rollerblades.
Our oldest daughter, Rosalie, was brought to the Tianjin orphanage when she was just two months old. Not long after, she underwent surgery to repair spinal meningocele. She spent most of her early years in foster care, and then in December of 2006 joined our family as our own foster daughter. She was four and a half. Because the circumstances of her arrival in our family were unusual, the legal process of the adoption itself was complex and lengthy. Dad truly moved mountains during this period of time, removing obstacles and granting us favor in the hearts and minds of those in positions of influence. He also graciously made a way for her to remain in our care for the entire duration of this process! In May of 2010, when Rose was eight years old, her adoption was completed. Finally, the law reflected what we had felt in our hearts and been experiencing as a family for years; she was our daughter. Rose is now 12 and one of my 6th-grade students. She is fun-loving and hangs out with a diverse group of people. Rose especially enjoys sports and participates in soccer, volleyball, and basketball.
Our youngest child, Josiah Lee, joined our family in January of 2012. Josiah spent the first year of his life in an orphanage and was 14 months old when our family traveled to Henan Province to meet him. Although he was a bit out of sorts in our first hours together, it wasn’t long before he began to show his charm! In those early weeks, we saw a boy ready to laugh, entertain, and make friends wherever he went. He is truly a performer at heart, happiest when he has the attention of an adoring crowd, which he’s found in his two big sisters! He’s been with us for two years now, and it’s impossible to imagine life without him.
Our family has been shaped, blessed, and transformed by adoption. We have certainly been blessed and changed through the gift of our three children, as well as through the responsibility and joy of parenting. Our family has experienced the joy-filled side of adoption. However, it is the loss and pain inherent in each adoption story that has been the place of seeing the good news more clearly. As parents, we are thankful for the way that our children’s stories have caused us to enter into shades of loss and pain that we never experienced in our own childhoods. We are humbled at the way our Father has used us to be a part of His restoration and redemption. Through the gift of these three beautiful children, we have been given countless opportunities to reflect on earthly adoption and its parallels in the spiritual realm, as we are all – by his great mercy - adopted children in the family of God.
Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27
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