If you follow my Facebook feed, you know that I have been posting pictures and links related to adoption for the month of November (National Adoption Awareness Month). Today, November 30, is the last day of the month, so I thought I would post something a little bit different (Don't worry, I'll link it to FB as promised there). And so, as we draw Adoption Awareness Month to a close for the year 2016, I wanted to give you a snapshot of my adoption story.

At Mother's Choice

Some of my readers will have followed along as we processed the adoption of our fourth child (first adoption, fourth child, second son), Ryan. We called him "The Little Emperor" and to this day (2 1/2 years after he came into our home) he still fairly rules the roost. Ryan was born with a genetic anomaly known as Coffin-Lowry Syndrome. As with many of the innate genetic syndromes, people affected have varying levels of restriction. Ryan's biggest issue has to do with speech: he understands more than 90% of what is said to him in English, he is unable to reproduce the sounds with his mouth. Consequently he communicates often with points, grunts, and his version of ASL (American Sign Language). He is getting along beautifully.


Ryan's physical limitations and medical needs early in life spurred his birth parents to relinquish custody of him to an adoption placement agency in Hong Kong called Mother's Choice. It was there that we found, fell in love with, and eventually adopted Ryan. He is ours forever an

Easter 2016

d a day, and according to adoption laws, his bond to us is more legally binding than that of his siblings (who are our biological children).

But wait, there is a chapter 2! Approximately one year ago we began discussing the possibility of adding yet another little Potter to our crew through adoption. Dillon International (our adoption agency here in the USA) had just been granted rights to assist adoptions from Vietnam (which had been closed to US adoptions for about seven years at the time). And off we go. We began asking friends and family members to pray for a Christmas trip to Vietnam. Then comes sad news: paperwork being what it is, we finally submitted our dossier (the last item that finally goes to the country from which you hope to adopt), and were given a more realistic timeline. We probably won't head to Asia over Christmas, but are looking at anywhere from February-August of next year. At any rate, we are in high hopes to have our new offspring in home before this time next year (pictures can only be shown after the dossier has cleared both US and Vietnamese scrutiny). We welcome all support--prayer, moral, and monetary--that anyone would like to cast our way. We are so close to finishing this journey that we can taste it!

But wait, there's more to my adoption story. You see, I'm adopted by the King. One of the things that makes this process so dear to our family is the picture that our earthly adoptions paint of the ultimate adoption that God offers through Jesus Christ, His Son. Are you adopted by the King? He wants to offer you that adoption today. You can become a child of the King and a joint-heir with Jesus Christ. Here are the words to an old hymn that teaches of the best adoption story ever:

My Father is rich in houses and lands,
He holdeth the wealth of the world in His hands!
Of rubies and diamonds, of silver and gold,
His coffers are full, He has riches untold.

I'm a child of the King,
A child of the King:
With Jesus my Savior,
I'm a child of the King.

My Father's own Son, the Savior of men,
Once wandered on earth as the poorest of them:
But now He is pleading our pardon on high,
That we may be His when He comes by and by.

I'm a child of the King,
A child of the King:
With Jesus my Savior,
I'm a child of the King.

I once was an outcast stranger on earth,
A sinner by choice, and an alien by birth
But I've been adopted, my name's written down,
An heir to a mansion, a robe, and a crown.

I'm a child of the King,
A child of the King:
With Jesus my Savior, (A Child of the King," words by Harriet Buell, found in the Baptist Hymnal, 1956 edition, emphasis added)

That's my adoption story, what's yours?