The Baity Family

“Hold that plane!”

I felt like I was in the middle of a movie scene as my husband, four-year-old daughter, and I dashed through Detroit International Airport to make our flight to Beijing via Tokyo on November 16, 2006.

“Hurry, hurry!” I kept yelling back to my good friend Heather, who was lagging behind. “They’re boarding NOW!!”

Finally arriving at the gate, we met up with my equally nervous father-in-law and breathed a sigh of relief as our traveling group was finally together and could settle into our 12-hour flight to Japan.

More than two years earlier, in October 2004, we had begun the process to adopt our second daughter from China. Named Lilly early on, this unknown child would be the topic of conversation and prayer for many months to come.

After adopting our first precious daughter, Abigail, in February 2004, my husband Peter and I immediately knew God was calling us back to China to continue building our family through the wonderful gift of adoption. Little did we know when we started the paperwork for our second journey that we would have a two-year wait ahead of us. As the months stretched into a year and then dragged into two, we were frustrated and discouraged by the lengthening wait as China slowed their processing of dossiers.

We kept reminding ourselves, however, that our sovereign God was in control. We trusted that He had a plan for our family and the additional wait was certainly no surprise to Him! We were encouraged by the words of Psalms 139:13-17 in which King David praises our powerful God who creates each of us and ordains our days before one of them ever comes to be. We knew that before the foundation of the world our Lilly had been chosen for us, and we just had to be patient and wait on the Lord to bring her to us.

Being the impatient people we are, this was not an easy task! But we were also encouraged by the America World staff who also consistently pointed us to this great truth.

And so, after two long years, we finally saw our beautiful Lilly’s face on September 26, 2006. It was a moment that was certainly worth the wait. I want to encourage those of you who are still waiting, take heart. Rest assured when you see your child’s face for the first time that long, agonizing, disappointing time of waiting will disappear.

Two months after receiving Lilly’s picture, we left for China by way of the Detroit International Airport...for us, a twice-in-a-lifetime trip. We are so blessed to have both of our precious girls as part of our family.

Our verse as we headed to China was a simple one from 1 Samuel 1:27:

“I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.”

Like Hannah praying for the son she longed for, God heard our prayers these last two years and after a long wait, brought us the child He planned for us. I cannot fathom how amazing and powerful our God is that He orders so many events, circumstances and details to bring our children to us, but I’m thankful that we have such an awesome God who loves us so greatly.

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!

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