Awe.
Joy.
Beauty.
Christmas.
Eighteen steps stretch from the ground to a smooth cement landing where three wooden doors stand at attention below a wide pointed expanse filled with a beautiful rose stained glass window—a majestic view from the Houston Metro red line during a downtown commute.
Amy Grant singing “Breath of Heaven,” First Call’s “Born a Sacrifice,” Michael Card’s “Joseph’s Song.”
Spires pointing to the heavens on a cold, December nighttime walk between fall and spring semesters, practically alone on Baylor’s campus.
The joy of discovering you’re pregnant and the miracle of bringing your own flesh and blood into the world.
I didn’t get to experience pregnancy, nor flesh and blood birth. But, there was a birth in Christmas 1997 that filled our hearts and lives with awe, joy, and beauty, and which changed our lives forever.
October 26, 1998
The Great Wall China Adoption agency had sent twenty-four families to China. We met each other in Beijing on October 24 and the next day toured the city together. Now we had to split up. Ten families flew to Nanchang, the capital city of the Jiangxi province. The province where our soon-to-be daughter was born.
4:30 P.M.
Excited screams and tears punctuated the Americans surrounding the 11th floor elevator at Nanchang’s Lake View Hotel. The first wave of babies had arrived. Two families gave me their cameras to take photos, as each family met its newest miracle.
Within an hour, Fu Kuang Nu, carried by her foster mother, slipped into our guide’s room from a back elevator. Nervous, excited, scurrying, we rushed down the hall, and entered the room. And we saw her, our precious ten-month-old daughter.
She had never ridden in an elevator before, never experienced air conditioning. Never seen round-eyed, white-faced humans. She was beautiful. The moment was awesome.
Found in front of the Lin Chuan orphanage on December 27, 1997, officials decided her birth date was December 25. I have photos of Martha and me enjoying that Christmas meal, with no idea that 8,000 miles away, our little girl’s Chinese mother was giving birth.
Now she was our beautiful, awesome, joy-filled Christmas bundle. As the pastor preached earlier this year (August 11), this wasn’t our daughter’s decision. She didn’t get a say about who her new parents would be. It was our decision. A decision we would never regret.
Over two thousand years ago, Jesus was born. We don’t know the exact day, but we choose to celebrate on December 25.
Mary experienced the beauty of birthing her own flesh and blood into this world. Joseph experienced the joy of adopting. The Son of God. An awesome moment, decided by God, which He will never regret.
And because of that awe-filled moment of birth and adoption, and Jesus’ sacrifice 33 years later, we all get the further awesome experience of being adopted by the Creator of the universe. The one true God.
Awe.
Joy.
Beauty.
Christmas.
