We walked up the long walkway edged with flowers. Yellow blossoms seemed a perfect way to welcome us to this new beginning.

“Was that him?” We saw a little brown head peeking out from around the back of the house and heard some giggles as we walked into the very tall slim pink home of the caretakers. Suddenly, as if shot from a bullet, in ran the cutest little boy I’ve ever seen. He had the biggest smile on his face as he jumped straight into the outstretched arms of a man he’d never met but knew was his Daddy.

So many stories led up to this moment … both my husband and I had wanted to adopt a child since before we were married. We had it all planned – we’d have one child, then adopt a child, then have another child. Three kids, perfect! But, of course, our plans were not God’s plans.

After two almost grown, beautiful daughters and 20 years of marriage under our belts, an image of a little boy entered our life. I work for Dillon International, specifically in the humanitarian aid area, so photos of children who need homes is not a rare sight for me. One day a co-worker in Vietnam sent me a photo of a baby boy who had been placed in her care. He was so precious! I felt an overwhelming need to find this little boy a home. Every child deserves a home and my hope is that every child will know the love of someone special, but this particular baby boy really got under my skin. I began putting him in as many agency publications as I could. Surely there was someone out there who could love this little boy and become the family he needed.

Then one day after several photos of him had crossed my desk, my co-worker in Vietnam sent me another photo. It was like a kick!

God said, “Wake up–you are his family!” In that photo, he stared right through me and straight into my heart and that was history … I was officially in love with this precious little boy. Who knew that the family I had been struggling to find for this little boy was mine. It took a little longer for my husband to get the wake up call. Eventually he decided sometimes the best things in life can be a little scary at first and this was definitely one of those times. Our entire family was very ready to love this child.

The country had just closed to adoptions when he was born, so I checked in on him every chance I had … watching him grow and change from a baby to a little boy, year after year. It became very hard at times, but I kept faith that he would one day be ours to love, snuggle and teach to pray along with all the other wonderful eventful and non-eventful moments shared by a family. The day finally came when Vietnam re-opened to intercountry adoptions and our agency’s license to place children from Vietnam was approved, so that we could officially begin the process to adopt this little boy who had captivated our hearts.

Later that year my husband and I traveled to Vietnam to pick up our son. We traveled around the country for three weeks, each of us learning more and more about each other. When we arrived home on Christmas Eve, our family was whole. We are now the very proud parents of three very smart, very good looking, very inquisitive, and very loving children. Three kids, perfect!

God is good!

Tonnie Dosser is the director of development for Dillon International, Inc.

Prayer for the week:
- Open our hearts to the orphan children around the world. Give us a burden to love and care for them as you have called us to do.
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