Beginning this journey a year and a half ago I was filled with so much uncertainty. What exactly did God have in store for the Minot family? I was eager to know what would lie ahead for us. We were forced into an attitude of the heart which was complete surrender. We had no ability within ourselves to create anything with regards to our adoption and the child that God had for us. We were in complete dependance on God as to who would be our child. A dependance that allowed us to come to know tremendous blessings which pale in comparison to anything I’ve experienced in my lifetime. We walked each day in faith and through the journey have had my heart, mind and soul expanded in ways that I could have never imagined. My eyes have seen, my ears have heard but mostly my heart has felt some of the most beautiful things and I will be forever grateful to my precious son, Cody for starting us on this journey that ultimately took us around the world and brought to us this precious child that we now call daughter and sister. As I have spent time during our first 2 weeks back a at home reflecting not only on our experience in China but mostly this entire adoption experience I am awestruck at how I have been intensely changed through this journey. God has refined me in so many ways as He has revealed himself to me along the path. He has opened my eyes to see life as He sees it. Not only did He bless our family with another child but He changed my heart and I am so thankful that I was pliable enough to be moved through each aspect of our adoption of Emily to a more intimate walk with my Lord. I have been privileged to experience the molding of a life into our family that gives me the pleasure of witnessing a miracle of God’s hand each day that I wake up and see our Chinese daughter sleeping in our home. Watching her move through her day in our home in Cocoa, Florida after spending the first 2 years of her life without us in an orphanage and a rural village outside of Kunming China fills me with such emotion that is truly beyond words. I think of what her life will be like and how grateful I am that God brought her to us. Her future is God’s and I have chills in thinking what God can accomplish through her. She will be granted so many opportunities and I am overwhelmed with honor that we were chosen to facilitate those opportunities.

Our journey to Emily transformed my heart and my thinking and I find that today I am more prepared to one day meet my heavenly father than I was when we began this journey. I have come to know my Lord is new ways each day as I have been drawn into His love. I have hidden His Word in my heart like no other time in my life and have trusted Him in such complete ways. He took me out of my comfort zone and immersed me into a culture that stretched me. As I look back on our time in China, I can see how He further refined many rough edges of my character, making me more like Him.

Since returning from China I have tried to give myself time to process all of the emotions, thoughts and feelings regarding our journey and at time have felt that I have lost some of the clarity of what the Lord has taught me through my walk down this road and then there are moments when everything is so crystal clear and I can recall tiny details which are so magnificant as I look back on how far we have journeyed. One of the themes that I have seen through our travels down this path is that there have been so many treasures along the way. I have been surprised by the gifts that God has bestowed upon us as we have faithfully trusted in Him along the way. I am reminded of James 1:17 which says that "Ever good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." Each gift has been so beautifully packaged by our Father and given at just the right time when we were ready to receive. At the beginning the gift was patience and diligence as we worked through all the paperwork having a great faith that with each effort we were one step closer to discovering the joy that would await us in receiving the child God had created for us. As we progressed down the path we were blessed with a gift that was gradual in presentation in that with each step we were drawn more intimately into our Lord and we trusted Him to grant the desires of our hearts while fulfilling His will for our family. This gift continued to present itself throughout the process but intensified as we received the gift of discovering the child He had created for us. A gift that came in the form of our referral. And then came the gift of GREAT TRUST and we waited for the day when our Emily would be placed in our arms. During the 5 long months that we waited to travel God came near to us and touched us in ways that words cannot express only to say that each and every day was a continual growing more and more into the Lord. During this portion of our journey I was surprised by the Lord with the gift of friendship in the form of a group of the most incredible women of faith whom I met in an online group. These women encouraged me, inspired me, shared in every joy and sorrow and have remained faithful friends until today. Never have I know such friendship and am so grateful that the Lord blessed me with this precious gift. As we waited for Emily to join our family our patience was perfected as we learned to rest in the Lord and wait on His perfect timing and when the day came for Emily to be placed in my arms I saw what God had seen all along. A perfectly prepared little girl who was ready for her mommy and daddy. Again, my thoughts were reminded of James when he says that "Endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing." I can confidently testify that on Feb. 26 when Emily came to us that Word from James was so true. We had endured the wait, the work was complete and our uniting was lacking in nothing. Emily was ready for us as we were fully ready for her. What a blessing it is to be able to review past events and see how perfectly God orchestrated the events which would bring about such a perfect conclusion.

It is amazing to me that in God’s incredible creativity He can orchestrate all of the details which can allow a family from Florida to connect with a helpless orphan in China and through those details accomplish so much in the lives of so many. It is a miraculous event of which I had the pleasure of being right in the middle. How great is God! As I think about traveling around the globe to receive this miracle I am reminded of just how God allowed Mike and I to shine His light in a dark world. I was shocked by the spiritual darkness of China. As I observed the people and absorbed the atmosphere I have never been so aware of the lack of the presence of the Lord. I think that I have taken that Presence for granted in that here in the US we are incredibly blessed by the ability of being able to worship and invite the Lord into our everyday lives. That is not true in China and the lack freedom to worship the Lord and speak of His love and in my opinion leaves its people with no hope. I hope that I was faithful to allow others to see Jesus in my walk during my 2 week stay in China. For all those with whom I had the opportunity to get to know it is my prayer that they were able to see that there was something different about us and I pray that God will somehow use our time in China to bring one lost soul into the Kingdom of Heaven. Being in China was not the most enjoyable time that I have ever experienced. Those intimate days getting to know our Emily are treasured gifts which I will hold near to my heart forever but the aspect of "being a traveler in China" was something that did not bring great joy however, once again God blessed me with the gift of thankfulness in spending time there in that I have such gratitude for what being an American means. My love for the country in which I was born has grown and intensified. The little things that I never thought about are now such treasures. As I drove to pick the kids up from school 2 days ago, I wept as I listened to our local Christian radio station. Tears of joy that I have the freedom to turn on my radio and hear the praises of God. I am overwhelmed with thankfulness each time I enter my local grocery store and take in the vast selection of delicious food available to me. As I walk out my front door I breathe a little deeper the fresh air that for the most part is unpolluted. I say a prayer of thanksgiving each time I see a handicap accessibility knowing that for the most part Americans value each life despite what disabilities they may have. Having the ability to enjoy the love and friendship of my sister who is my best friend is something that brings such gratitude in that I thank God that I have the gift of knowing her love and that my parents were able to grant us the ability to be sisters. And as I wake each morning in my beautiful home with clean water, air-conditioning as well as the other luxuries I am so accustom I give thanks. And so as I bring these reflections to a close the prayer of my heart is that I will never lose these treasures discovered in a far away land. May the gifts that have been given to me through the process of adopting Emily never leave me and now may I leave you with a quote whose author is unknown, "I have held many things in my hands and I have lost them all; but whatever I placed in God’s hands, that I still possess." Thanks to each of you who have shared our Journey to Emily. I am honored that you would have joined us and count it all joy and blessing to call each of you a friend. It is my greatest hope and prayer that you have been touched deeply by the words of my heart and know that Cody, Grace and Emily will forever know of your kind words, thoughts and prayers offered to them throughout our journey and now "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength." Ephes. 1:18-19