5 Years Home

October 20, 2022 Michelle Cuthrell

Five years ago this summer, two nurturing nannies tenderly carried a tentative 3-year-old into the center of the Wuhan Civil Affairs room in Wuhan City, China … and our little team couldn’t have fallen faster or more deeply in love.

In an effort to prepare us to welcome and love on this child whose mother loved him so much that she swaddled him in a blue blanket and left him in a hospital garden where she knew he would be quickly treated and found, these precious women briefed us on the personality traits of the boy they had known and loved for all three years of his little life.

Long Long, as they called him, was shy.

Tentative.

Introverted.

Reserved.

He was afraid of loud noises, and chaos?

His kryptonite.

Until, apparently, he spent 24 hours in the presence of pure pandemonium.

Front Row Seats to the Amazing

February 10, 2021 Michelle Cuthrell

She's been swimming, competing and setting records for years, but on Sunday during a 60-second Super Bowl commercial, her story stole an entire nation's heart.

That's because Jessica Long was born overseas with something the world calls a "disability" but one family knew was just a superpower in disguise.

With a condition called fibular hemimelia, Jessica was missing her fibulas, ankles, heels and most of the bones in her feet.

But not a fighting heart.

"It won't be easy," people told the family praying about adopting this sweetheart and her brother from the Siberian orphanage where a precious teenage couple had surrendered her in the best act of love they knew how.

I imagine the Long family received a long list of all the things this precious orphan in Siberia would NOT be able to do.

Possibly an inventory of all the ways her life would somehow be limited.

Maybe a million warnings from well-meaning friends and family about all the ways that their lives might then be limited, too.

Because it's just human nature to look at "realistic" parameters before realizable potential, to prioritize comfort above the kind of Christlike courage it takes to believe a Savior over a circumstance and trust that He really can move the mountains He tells us He can move.

But even in the face of the world's views of "handicaps," of society's view of "limits," this faithful family saw in this treasure what her Heavenly father saw:

A precious, perfect, priceless image bearer of God.

One whose identity didn't come from her abilities or her body parts but from a wonder-working God who specializes in bringing beauty out of brokenness and making all things new.

Seven Sparkly Years

December 31, 2020 Michelle Cuthrell

Traditionally, age 7 isn’t exactly a blow-out kind of birthday year.

Unless, that is, it marks a significant step in an unraveling life story.

Like the year that tips the scales and moves the dial from more time spent as an orphan in this life to NOW, at age 7, the same amount of time spent as a proclaimed SON … one passionately and madly loved by TWO mamas in this big, wide world.

Seven Years with Superman

December 16, 2020 Michelle Cuthrell

It happened seven years ago today.

The boy with the soft-deep black-brown eyes that had stopped our hearts in our chest the Christmas Eve before walked through the curtains of a civil affairs office in Guangzhou, China … and transformed not just our hearts but our LIVES.

We called him “Superman.” But there’s absolutely no way we really understood then just how SUPER this boy would really be.

The Race To Bring Mark Home

December 15, 2020 Michelle Cuthrell

GUEST POST WRITTEN BY KATIE HINER

Mark has a megawatt smile. His caretakers love him, and, by all accounts, he endears himself to everyone he meets. He has a great memory and I have seen video evidence of a strong side-eye game and a killer sense of humor. In a video taken at his previous healing home, Mark’s physical therapist, seeing him struggling to use a walker for the first time, tried to distract him by telling him to sing “Happy Birthday.” As Mark prepared to take his first step, he told the PT, “When there’s cake I’ll sing.”

Like I said, the kid’s got jokes. He will need that attitude to overcome the adversity he faces. He has some special needs, including hydrocephalus, that will require specialized care and ongoing monitoring and therapy. But what he needs most is a forever family. And that’s why I’m writing this.

The day I first saw his photo, I shared it and asked, “Whose day would not be improved with that smile in it?” Now I’m asking a different question, with all the love a parent’s heart can hold for this amazing kid. Will you race to be his family?

Mark is all that really matters in this story, but I didn’t think I’d ever ask another family to start this race. My husband and I have been running toward him for almost three years. We love him. We recently included Mark, by way of a framed picture, in a family portrait taken on the rock overlooking the Potomac River where my husband proposed. “No mountain too high, no river too wide,” we said.

That commitment now includes overcoming the grief of knowing we don’t get to cross the finish line; we don’t get to be the family to bring him home. Posting this publicly goes beyond our family’s typical comfort zone. But we would go all the way back to the start and do it again to be able to share about Mark and introduce him to an adoptive family that will recognize and nurture this sweet, funny, engaging little guy and walk with him through all that lies ahead.

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