The Day His Name Became Son

August 14, 2017 Michelle Cuthrell

We knew it was going to be hard.

The sweet boy we’d been dreaming about for seven long months had been living in a foster home for the past three years. And from the reports both in his file and the ones we’d received in our updates, we knew that this shy and tentative boy was very well attached to his foster family.

We celebrated that our angel likely already knew the meaning of love, because we SAW love in his pictures, we saw love in his family’s eyes, and we EXPERIENCED the love his foster mama had for him as we read every word she wrote in each of her reports.

Superhero 4 definitely knew LOVE.

So we knew that taking him away from everything he’d ever known — not from a group environment where he’d never gotten to experience one-on-one attention, but from the home of a couple who loved him and another foster child from his orphanage so very well that he even slept in their bed each night — was going to be excruciating.

Joy's Story Changed ... Again!

June 1, 2017 Michelle Cuthrell

They’d been praying over her since the moment they first saw her face on their newsfeed back in December.

They’d wondered if she was theirs from the moment her grocery store boxing gloves won their hearts.

They were drawn to her. They felt attached to her. They were enamored by her. They adored her.

They just didn’t know if they could responsibly COMMIT to her in that specific season in time.

A military family stationed on the East coast and awaiting orders anywhere in the world, they were a family in transition, unsure if they could physically begin the international adoption process because of where they might soon be stationed … but one nevertheless gripped by the joy that was Joy.

Although we had mutual friends, we didn’t know each other, and we’d never been stationed together. But this sweet military family messaged me anyway to learn more about the winter host child who had captured our hearts and theirs in under 5.2.

Joy. Personality-packed, affectionate Joy.

The Richer Route

May 31, 2017 Michelle Cuthrell

We were on Hour 4 of our 13-hour Mama-boys road trip to a championship for Superhero 1 in East Lansing, Michigan.

The route was one we knew well. Before they moved to our state, my parents used to live in Michigan, and between trips to Michigan and trips to visit family still living along this same route in Ohio, we’d made the long trek multiple times over the last few years. We knew the roads, we had exact change for all the tolls and we were ready to put our Pilot on auto-pilot and breeze through these familiar paths with ease.

Until we hit a highway road closure, and a detour ruined our awesome, easy-breezy, we-had-already-transitioned-to-cruise-control-and-audio-book-mode, simple and streamlined road tripping life.

When the Joy is for Someone Else

May 2, 2017 Michelle Cuthrell

We were still in the weeds of the hard grieving, temper-tantruming, attaching and adjusting adoption days when it happened.

Superman had been home from China for six months, and although he had bonded incredibly quickly, his frustration at not being able to communicate as well as he wanted in English was resulting in still-frequent melt-downs.

We were overtired and overjoyed and, even through the high-pitched screaming that punctuated our days and pierced our ears, all head over heels in love.

Although it had only been six months, we couldn’t even remember what life was like without the little firecracker who brought so much love and laughter to our days. And we didn’t want to. Our lives had never been as brilliant, bright or full. And from that place, with Superman snuggled in my arms, I just fiercely longed for more.

As I cried out to God in my morning prayer times, He began placing a vision and a longing in my heart for a little girl … a little girl whose name would be Joy Mei.

Every Single Dime and a Trumpet, Too

April 19, 2017 Michelle Cuthrell

We’ve completed the homestudy, conducted all the background checks, spilled our guts about every private area of our lives (including our pee samples and bloodwork) and received approval from U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services! And, as of Monday, April 17, our dossier to bring home Superhero 4 is officially logged in China!

Adoption acronym speech: WE ARE L.I.D.!

Now we wait six to 12 weeks for our Letter of Approval/Letter Seeking Confirmation from China officially approving us as Superhero 4’s parents! (Let’s be honest — I’m praying hardcore for six! Come on, May 29, 2017!)

In the meantime, we nest.

We paint old furniture to look new.

We sort the 3t clothes that have survived three not-so-easy-on-the-pants boys from the ones that took a knee-hole casualty.

And we pray.

But what we won’t be doing this time around in that grueling two-to-three-month wait is fundraising.

Because friends, in an amazing move that has humbled and floored Super-Spouse and me in ways we can’t even describe, God has provided every single dime (minus travel) we need to fund this adoption.

Without fundraising.

In the period of three short months.

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