Eyes That See

(Note: Due to the sensitive nature of this post, some names and identifying details have been changed.)

Eliana's adoption was incredibly difficult; for 13 of the 16 months her process took we had no human reason to believe it would happen. I learned to truly pray during that trial, but on those days when my faith flagged more than usual, I begged God: if not us, then at least another Christian family! As obstacles mounted and I seemed already to be asking the impossible, I frequently added a more audacious plea: that in communist China, Eliana might meet someone―anyone―who would share the gospel with her while she waited for us.

When Eliana at last was ours, it was heartwarming to find her as bubbly with happiness as her

The day we finally got Eliana

photos and videos had promised. But she'd never even heard the name Jesus. Six weeks home, I took her to Missouri to meet my friend, Elaine. She had a Chinese Christian friend, so with Eliana's English still rudimentary, we'd asked him to share the gospel with her in Mandarin.  Eliana listened politely, but was more curious about why we'd adopted her. The man translated my answer: it was because we loved Jesus and thought that He wanted us to do it. "Then I love Him, too," she said matter-of-factly, as if no other reaction could possibly have made sense.

Eliana's joyful presence in our family made the decision to adopt again fairly easy when I heard about Maria six months later. And as bumpy as Eliana's adoption process was, Maria's was smooth; from start to finish took just over seven months. Of course I prayed for Maria as I waited: that she would receive good care in China; in our morning, that she'd have a good night's sleep; in our evening, that she'd have a good day at school; that she would come home soon; and that she'd be a blessing to our family. But not once did I pray that she'd meet someone in China who might share the gospel with her; she was in an enormous government-run orphanage. And I was still so embarrassed by my request for Eliana's salvation that I hadn't told anyone I'd prayed it, and often.

In late 2015, I went to China to meet a boy to advocate back home for, similar to my old work with Russian orphans. After the first part of my trip, Elaine joined me, and we visited an orphanage for blind children, as I now yearned to help blind kids find adoptive families. The orphanage housed us in a little cottage, home to three pre-teen girls. The girls attended a school for the blind, and the youngest, Li Ling, was in Maria's class there. Li Ling knew Maria, she said, but I'd been warned to stay quiet in China about my own adoption plans, so I had to be content with just meeting someone who knew her.

The orphanage caused Elaine and I great distress that first day and night. The need of the children there was strength-sapping, and I didn’t know where to start. To make matters worse, there was no supervision in the cottage, and one of the girls played a single Mandarin song endlessly, spinning in circles as she listened. The next morning, I awoke to her belting out the chorus every time it played. My pillow was too skimpy to muffle the noise, and I wanted to grumble to Elaine, but somehow she slept. Suddenly, the Lord changed my outlook as I finally placed English words with the refrain:

                Nothing is too difficult for Thee!

                Nothing is too difficult for Thee!

                Great and mighty God,
                Great in counsel and mighty in deed,

                Nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing,

                Nothing is too difficult for Thee!"

 As it played the rest of the weekend, I thanked the Lord for forgiving me my doubts, and reminding me of His power over―and over―and over―even if it took the scourge of an earworm to do it.

When I returned home, I finished our adoption paperwork. Randy and I flew to China in April 2016, this time to pick up Maria. Being in a foreign country with a new, non-English speaking child is stressful, to put it mildly. So two of Elaine's daughters, both fluent in Mandarin, traveled with me, since Randy would stay only 36 hours due to his busy season at work. Additionally, his cousin Annie, who works in a Chinese orphanage near Nepal, came to Beijing to share our happiness.

Randy and I with Maria, right when we got her

We left our hotel early on April 25 to drive to Maria's orphanage. When we arrived, we signed a
few documents, then without any ceremony Maria entered the room. We'd had her only a few minutes before we all were ushered out. Though we asked, they would not let us see where she'd lived; after some arm-twisting, they agreed to send us a photo of what they said was her bed.

As we drove away in the van, Maria began firing off insistent questions. Within several minutes, one of Elaine's daughters and Annie exclaimed, "She's a Christian!" Maria desperately wanted to know, really demanded to know, if we were, too. Yes, we assured her, but once was not sufficient. She asked again, then after our second yes, launched into a presentation of how Jesus had died on the cross for our sins. Only when we told her that we knew what Jesus did, and that we ourselves believed it, did she finally seem to trust our answers.



In Tiananmen Square our first day together, right before
we met Tang

I was just as incredulous as she. My brand new daughter―in China―was a believer, and a bold one at that! Thinking back on my crazy prayer for Eliana, I wished I'd had the faith to pray that for Maria, too. But our good God graciously deigned to answer what I'd chosen not to ask.

As I marveled at the human improbability of it all, Maria told us of her friend at the blind school who'd shared the gospel with her. When we asked more about this dear soul, I found out it was Li Ling, her classmate from the little cottage at the orphanage Elaine and I had visited.


That first evening together, Randy, Maria, Annie, and I went to Tiananmen Square. In front of the iconic portrait of Chairman Mao, Maria spoke loudly about Christmas, not a traditional Chinese holiday. Soon, a very scarred, mismatched-looking man approached us. Having overheard Maria, he asked Annie, "Do you believe?" She told him we all did. The man, Tang, had come from a province 1,000 miles away to the heart of Beijing just to pray for China. His subject turned to persecution, and with his appearance, we guessed he was talking about himself. Tang suggested we all pray, right there in the square, for China and America. He spoke kindly to Maria, then before he left, asked her to continue praying that both China and her new country would bow to God's rule. Despite our many differences, he was a brother, and meeting Tang was a highlight of our trip.

The next morning, right before Randy departed China, we had a lovely tour of Maria's school. It was unspeakably moving when Maria entered the gate, and her friends, all blind, gathered around her. She'd shed her blue uniform shirt and the red scarf of communism, and now as they touched her new clothes and the bow in her hair, they called

Maria's friends from school gather round her on her
visit back with Randy and I.

her beautiful. Li Ling choked me up the most, my knowing that she'd shared the precious gift of life with our new daughter.

Maria adores God more than most people do, loves His Word, aches to worship, and shows concern for other believers. She prays earnest prayers, trusts God to answer them, then isn't surprised when He does. She wants to be a missionary, preferably to the Philippines, but for now, she's a missionary at home in America.

Blind? Not really. Maria and Li Ling have eyes that SEE.

Out of nowhere the other day, Maria proclaimed, "I like being blind." Indeed, while I have never, ever heard her utter a word against it, the sentiment still astounded me.  Many people who know little about the reality of blindness think death would be preferable, but I like to think sightless eyes brought her life. They sent her to a Chinese blind school, where she heard the gospel because a "blind" friend had enough vision and faith to share it. It's impossible to know what might have been had Maria not been born blind, but it seems to me that what most call blindness has led to her sight.

                But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear (Matthew 13:16).

**********