Winter Night

As you have surely heard by now, we have finally received our adoption referral. It’s a girl! She is just what we asked for in a process that started nearly three years ago. She was three years old on December 12 and she is beautiful. I’m sure that I am a little prejudiced, but she really is the cutest little girl I’ve ever seen since my other three daughters were that age.

We had hoped to use part of her Chinese name, and had waited until we learned it to finalize the decision. We had already decided on the first name of “Hope” about a month ago, and waited for the referral to see what she was named in China. Well, it looks like that may be difficult. Her Chinese name is Huai Dong Tan. We have decided on calling her Hope Marie, and are still thinking about the Chinese part.

It is the meaning of her Chinese name that brings a tear to my eye. “Huai” is the name of the orphanage that she is in, and the words “Dong Tan” mean “winter night”. Apparently, she was found on Dec. 14, 2007 and was judged to be two days old, so we can assume the she was discovered on a winter night. It breaks my heart to think about what her China mother felt like she had to do. I don’t judge her because I don’t know what it is like to live in a country that has been haunted by famine, war, and poverty. In truth we have decided to keep that unknown Chinese mother in our prayers in the future.

There is probably no season and time that can seem so bleak as a winter night. Those of us blessed to have a home, and family and loved ones waiting for us around a warm hearth should be very thankful. Can we even imagine the anguish of a mother who felt that her life and future were so bleak that she would give up a precious daughter? I believe however, that the Chinese mother had some degree, however slight, of hope. Hope that her daughter would be cared for, and hope that some loving family would take her child into a good home. We consider it an honor and a privilege to be part of the answer to that mother’s hopes and perhaps prayers for her child.

As we approach the celebration of Christmas this year the whole world seems to be in a dark, bleak, winter night of war, turmoil, suffering, fear, and anxiety. The one whose birth we celebrate came to bring light and hope to the world, yet multitudes choose darkness, and multitudes still wait to be told of the Gospel, the “good news” of Jesus Christ. We pray that in this holiday season all who read this would renew their hope in the promises of Christ, and especially that any who have not yet responded to Christ’s Gospel would do so.

Also, please pray for us to be able to complete our journey, and bring home our little girl whose name will be changed from “ Winter Night” to “Hope Marie”.

Ronnie