Choosing to SEE - Mary Beth Chapman [48]
When we got to China, there was good news and bad news.
The good news was that Maria was there and her papers had been collected to be able to complete her adoption. However, the medical papers with her initial heart diagnosis had been lost.
She was just tiny when she had the tests to determine the ASD. Now, when she was examined again so her adoption papers would be complete, her heart was healthy. We had no way of knowing if her original condition was a misdiagnosis or if her heart had been healed. Sometimes these types of holes close up on their own as the child grows. At any rate, there was no evidence that she still had the condition.
So while that was good, the bad news from an adoption standpoint was that now officials wanted to reclassify Maria as “healthy” instead of “special needs.” This meant that she would have to reenter the system and go through a completely different process, which in essence would make our being able to adopt her next to impossible.
We started praying immediately.
We were told to come back in a few months, and that they would have it figured out. I was devastated. I tried my best to hold it together, but the tears came in spite of my best attempts. The officials asked us to go to a nearby building to wait.
We paced, cried, and prayed. Our case was being considered by everybody from the official in the big office with the leather chair to the clerk in the finance office with the steel stool and the rubber stamp . . . and it seemed like everyone in that hierarchy had an equal vote.
Over the next few days, we’d get word that it looked like we were going to be approved to adopt Maria. We’d prepare to leave the hotel to go pick up our little one. Then we’d get a message that it looked like it was not going to work out. So we’d stay at the hotel for a few more days.
We were on a roller coaster of excitement and despair, and by the time it was all over I was sure that, due to stress, we would have developed the heart problems that Maria no longer had. But in the end, after many tears and a lot of sweating, God allowed us to adopt Maria. Her paperwork was approved and completed, and with much excitement and laughter, we went to the Heddens’ home to pick her up.
This was really, really difficult. It was like Maria had a family, one that wanted her, but because of the Chinese law they couldn’t adopt her. I was grieving as I saw how hard it was for the Heddens, but at the same time I wanted to shout and scream with joy that we would become a forever family. We prayed and all cried together.
Then it was time to take Maria with us. There was a long, sad moment, and then Amy looked at me and calmly said, “You need to go now.” She had packed a little bag for Maria. “Pick up her bag and take her things,” Amy continued. “It’s time.” She was being the mom who needed to pick up the pieces and comfort her family once we had gone.
We gave Maria the middle name “Sue” in honor of Amy Hedden’s middle name. We will never forget the wonderful family who loved and guarded our little girl until it was God’s timing for us to come and make her our own.
But then our new life with Maria Sue Chapman began . . . and it was wild and crazy, right from the start.
19
I’m Divin’ In!
The long awaited rains
Have fallen hard upon the thirsty ground
And carved their way to where
The wild and rushing river can be found
And like the rains
I have been carried here to where the river flows, yeah
My heart is racing and my knees are weak
As I walk to the edge
I know there is no turning back
Once my feet have left the ledge
And in the rush I hear a voice
That’s telling me it’s time to take the leap of faith
So here I go
“Dive”
Words and music by Steven Curtis Chapman
If you want a nice, tidy, organized life, you don’t marry Steven Curtis Chapman. And you don’t adopt orphans. And you don’t start an adoption/orphan care ministry. But I did all that . . .
As time went