Introducing Lao Er

This is the first son I'd like to introduce to you!  He is the younger of our two boys, but I definitely cannot call him the smallest.  The birthday we chose for Sam is November 4, 2010.  There's really no special significance except for the random fact that it is my half-birthday.  This is just an estimate since there is no official record of his birth, but it is assumed that he is around five months old.  When we first "met" Sam in December, this is what he looked like:

It's hard to believe he's the same little boy.  But beneath his jolly rolls & butterball cheeks, I can still see those eyes that I fell in love with all those months ago.

Our Sam was found abandoned at a hospital when he was only 4 weeks old.  We don't know anything of his history beyond that.  The name that was given to him in the orphanage was Sami, which according to a few websites I checked (I know, thorough and entirely reliable research on my part!), means "God has heard" or "high and exalted."  We really liked the first meaning because the fact that this little one was discovered and his life saved is evidence of the fact that God heard our prayers for him even before we knew him.   

Despite the fact that we had all along been planning on naming one of our sons Ethan, we began to consider the name Samuel.  With those meanings in mind, I liked the idea of maintaining a similar name to Sami's Ethiopian name.  Plus, we liked the connection to the prophet Samuel in the Bible, whose mother Hannah's desperation to bear a child did not go unrecognized by God.  While it's obvious that I didn't bear our Sam, God has still been merciful to my desire to become a mother by bringing him into our family.

The lynchpin, however, to choosing Samuel as our son's name actually came a few days after we had received his first pictures.  When our agency gives an adoption referral, they include a few pictures, some scanty medical reports, and a social report that explains some of the child's developmental progress.  Sami's social report stated that he was not responding to external sounds around him.  Our doctor was afraid that he might have some serious hearing issues.  While we recognized that deafness is certainly a manageable disability, we weren't sure if it was something that we would be able to gain proper medical attention for while living in China.  We had to face the reality that we might not be able to accept this darling little boy's referral.  That was a very, very tough realization which caused no small amount of sorrow for my heart.

The next day was a Friday, which is the day our group of ex-pat friends gather together for worship.  The following is one of the hymns we chose to sing together that evening:

"Whatever My God Ordains Is Right"

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His holy will abideth;
I will be still whate’er He doth;
And follow where He guideth;
He is my God; though dark my road,
He holds me that I shall not fall:
Wherefore to Him I leave it all.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He never will deceive me;
He leads me by the proper path:
I know He will not leave me.
I take, content, what He hath sent;
His hand can turn my griefs away,
And patiently I wait His day.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
His loving thought attends me;
No poison can be in the cup
That my Physician sends me.
My God is true; each morn anew
I’ll trust His grace unending,
My life to Him commending.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
He is my Friend and Father;
He suffers naught to do me harm,
Though many storms may gather,
Now I may know both joy and woe,
Some day I shall see clearly
That He hath loved me dearly.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Though now this cup, in drinking,
May bitter seem to my faint heart,
I take it, all unshrinking.
My God is true; each morn anew
Sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart,
And pain and sorrow shall depart.

Whate’er my God ordains is right:
Here shall my stand be taken;
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
Yet I am not forsaken.
My Father’s care is round me there;
He holds me that I shall not fall:
And so to Him I leave it all.

Samuel Rodigast, 1676

Though the words were from long ago, they were such a solace to my downcast heart.  Whether Sami was to join our family or not, God's plan was right and to Him we would leave it all.  And who was the author whose pen spoke through the centuries to comfort me?  None other than a man named Samuel.  Surely, if this little boy was to be ours, he too would bear that name.

A few days later, we found out that the social report had been filled out incorrectly, and there was in fact nothing wrong with our little one's hearing.  We joyfully accepted his referral and have been exceedingly grateful ever since to call this one our own.

The middle name Jedidiah was a name Kevin selected from the Old Testament.  It means "loved by God."  We wanted our son's name to affirm to him that though his life had a somewhat hapless beginning, God's loving hand was not far from him, nor will it ever be.  We also have some dear friends who lost a son named Jedidiah, and we wanted to honor his memory with our son's name.

So I'm thrilled to share with you my favorite pictures of Lao Er, our Samuel Jedidiah: