"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depts of the earth your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Psalm 139:13-16
In Kunming City, China there is a little girl named Yi Tao. A little girl who is loved beyond words by a mommy, daddy brother and sister who have never met her but know that she was born for us. Hand-picked by God as another thread to bring more beauty to the tapestry of our family. As she wakes each day in China, her mommy, daddy, brother and sister are ending their day in the United States with thoughts and prayers of her filling our minds. She has touched our hearts so deeply and we excitedly await the time in which we will bring her home. Our journey to Yi Tao began over one year ago with the compassion of our son Cody.
Our Journey Begins
The Minot Family van was traveling home after a fun-filled morning at Vacation Bible School when Cody, our 9-year old son inquired as to "why don’t we adopt an orphan." He had viewed a video about an orphanage and through the images he saw God touched his heart and used him to change our course in order to ultimately bring Yi Tao into our family.
Adopting internationally was something that I, Nichole had never considered. We had adopted Cody, Connor and Grace domestically and never entertained the possibility of international adoption. The fact that Cody would encourage us to move to this route was such a beautiful display of how God uses our children to guide us. Recognizing that God was providing direction for our family through Cody, Mike and I embraced our new course. The process was so different than what I experienced with our previous adoptions and there were so many options. We began exploring different countries and agencies. For many months, I was like waves in the ocean being tossed about, not being able to decide which way to go. It was during that time that my husband, Mike waited patiently and prayerfully allowing God the time to grant me the peace in knowing and trusting in His perfect plan. Early one morning as I prayed the Lord confirmed in my heart through Psalm 139 that He would reveal to us His direction as to where our son or daughter would be if I would simply trust Him. During this time of prayer He calmed my sea and gave me peace in trusting Him and His plan. As I experienced a calmness, my mind became focused and clear and He turned my eyes to China. On a quiet Sunday afternoon I finally viewed an America World Adoption Association video given to me by a friend who had recently returned from China with her daughter. It was through that video that God allowed me to see His plan that our future daughter or son would come from China. Peace enveloped me. Life is so much easier when we place our lives in God’s hands. My wonderful husband who had been enduring my indecisiveness excitedly embraced our direction and we quickly began the "paper chase" which is a term associated with compiling the documents necessary to prepare a dossier (the package of documents required by China to adopt a child).
The "paper chase" seemed to take an extraordinarily long time but it was during that time that God was preparing us for another direction in our journey. Having had the incredible blessing of being parents to our son Connor who had special-needs God had placed a love and a passion for these wonderful children within our hearts. Mike and I had a strong desire for a special-needs child but had decided at the time of our application to America World Adoption Association we would request a healthy girl ages 0 - 2. Relinquishing the possibility of receiving special -needs child was something that we could not do therefore we requested to be placed on AWAA’s "Interested Families List" which is a list of parents who are willing to adopt a special needs child. Again, peace enveloped me and my excitement grew as I now knew that we were perfectly centered in God’s plan.
