Meant To Be

I Love this song!  This is Steven Curtis Chapman's new video "Meant To Be" for the new Veggie Tales movie. 

I dedicate this song to my beautiful daughters! 

How Has a Child Changed Your Life?

This morning on K-Love they asked the question "How has a child saved or changed your life?"
There were many incredible stories that were shared.  I would like to share how my girls have changed my life. 

As many of you know I am half Caucasian and half Korean.  I was born in Korea and moved to the United States when I was a young toddler.  It was hard for me growing up because I never really fit in and was often teased about my slanted eyes.  This made such an impact on me as a young child that by the time I was a teenager I was ashamed of being Asian and was saving up money to have surgery on my eyes when I became an adult.  Kids use to call me Chinese/Japanese and would ask me questions like "How do you eat soup with chop sticks?  or Where are your braids?"  There were a lot more of those kinds of questions and teasing. 

Six months after Jeff and I got married, I accepted the Lord and became a Christian.  By this time as an adult I accepted who I was and knew that God created me.  As you may already know God lead us to China to adopt our first child, Myellie.  Myellie was a beautiful gift from the Lord.  She was my healing from all the experiences of childhood that were negative concerning being Asian.  When we became Myellie's parents we fell in love with the Asian culture and people.  We desired to teach Myellie about her culture and wanted her to be proud of who God has made her.  Since then we adopted Karlie and again she opened our eyes to the beautiful person that God created.  Both of my girls are proud to be Asian and they tell everyone that they were born in China and are Americans.  God has really put a burden on my heart for the people in Asia.  Many of them do not know the truth about our Lord and Savior and the ones who do know the truth cannot express their love for Jesus openly.  Many of them risk their lives just to serve Him.  I am thankful for God's love, grace and mercy and that He would send me two beautiful girls to touch my heart and to give me such a love for His people. 

First Day of School

 I remember 5 years ago after we adopted Karlie, I was planning and praying for our next child. I remember thinking that it's going to be a long time before we adopt again and that Karlie would be in Kindergarten by then. Well fast forward 5 years. Karlie started Kindergarten today and Myellie started 3rd grade. Wow, I can't believe how time just flys by. I am looking forward to this school year. I plan to enjoy each moment with my girls and look forward to meeting Katelin Hope (hopefully this year). Children are a blessing from the Lord. I am thankful that He has and is building our family through the miracle of adoption.

Labor Pains of Adoption

Today I was listening to K-Love and heard something that really made me think about our adoption journey and the emotional ups and downs that we experience with adoption. Think about what Jesus went through so that we could be adopted into God’s family. He paid the ultimate price and endured dying so that we could have eternal life. He loves us so much that He was willing to go through it so that we could receive the beautiful gift of salvation and be a son or daughter of God.

What are we willing to endure throughout the adoption process to ultimately receive the beautiful gift of a baby or child? I really had to think about this and realized that the emotional aspects of adopting are our labor pains. We fall in love with a baby or child who we haven’t even met but yet are willing to endure a mountain of paperwork, background checks, levels of approval and waiting and more waiting not knowing when your gift will arrive. This doesn’t even compare to what Jesus has done for us.

My prayer:
Dear Lord,
Thank you so much for the price you paid for me to have eternal life. I will be forever grateful that you endured so much pain and ultimately death so that I could be adopted into God’s family. I promise to not let the enemy steal my joy as I wait for your gift, Katelin Hope. I will endure waiting as you endured much more than I could ever imagine! I love you with all my heart and thank you for guiding me through this crazy and exciting life!
Amen

Today I celebrate that Jesus rose again and is alive!

Introduction

Hello Everyone!
We are Jeff, Joyce, Myellie and Karlie Denson. We are a loving family of 4 waiting for our precious daughter and sister, Katelin Hope. We are so excited about God's plan for our family. He has united our family by the miracle of adoption. We have a heart for adoption and are so thankful for God's plan for our lives. We will keep you posted as we learn more information about Katelin.

Brief History of our Adoption Story

Jeff and I have been married for 18 years. When we were first married we wanted to start our family. We tried to conceive a baby for seven years with no success so we decided to seak medical help. We were devastated after finding out we could not conceive children. One night I had a dream that an Asian family was looking for someone to adopt a one year old baby who’s mother passed away. Shortly after the dream, a co-worker brought me an article about a reunion of Chinese adopted children to be held at Seaworld. I immediately called the number listed and attended an information meeting about adopting from China. There were two beautiful babies at the meeting who just came home. I instantly fell in love and don’t even remember what was said at the meeting. I just knew that God was calling us to adopt from China. I remember getting into the car and looking at Jeff and said “I don’t know how we are going to pay for this but I know God is calling us to adopt from China". We stepped out in faith and submitted our application. A month after that, the company I worked for had a huge layoff and promoted me to "Call Center Manager" with a $1000 a month raise and this is what paid for our adoption. A year and half later, we flew to China to pick up our baby girl Myellie. She was the most beautiful and perfect baby I had ever seen and we knew without a doubt that she was our gift from God. Three years later God blessed us with another baby girl from China, Karlie. I call her my little me because she and I are cut from the same piece of cloth. My heart still longed for more children and our family didn't seem complete. We searched and prayed and four years later after pursuing many narrow paths, God lead us to His Hands, Taiwan. We are so blessed and thankful that God is allowing us to adopt again. We are excited about His plan for our family!