In our first blog, my Mom talked about our family coming into completion, through adoption. It’s not an easy journey, but it’s worth it, and I feel like this is our…or at least my purpose of existing.
We named this blog, Finding Franky, and it’s pretty self explanatory. We created this to share her story, my story, our story…
My name is Emily Edwards. As of now, I live in a house with my Mom and my Dad, my older, biological brother, and my two younger foster brothers, in a tiny, tiny town in Indiana. Franky, soon to be renamed Sophia, is my little sister. She will complete our home soon, but for now, she is still in China.
Not quite two years ago, I received a subscription email from Steven Curtis Chapman’s website, inviting students to join Show Hope (an organization to care for orphans) in visiting special needs orphans at a special care center, Maria’s Big House of Hope (MBHOH). Located in Luoyang, China, MBHOH is a huge, 6 story, blue building that houses and provides medical attention to some of the most precious children.
Two things that stuck out when I read the email were 1) children and 2) China. I’ve developed an interesting fascination with China’s culture and its people ever since I was 10 years old and attended a Mission’s Camp where missionaries in China came as the Camp Missionaries. God has also put a love in my heart for babies, and young children. I enjoy teaching them about God’s love and trying to get inside of their understandings and thoughts about life, Jesus, etc. The mind of my four year old brother, Kadin, completely amuses me.
Anyways. I spent the whole year of 2010 praying about applying to go on this 12 day trip to Luoyang, China. The more I talked about it, the more those around me thought I was crazy to want this. But, applying in November, and getting accepted in January, God has shown me over and over again that it has always been in His favor for me to serve in China.
The Lord wasn’t only moving in my heart, but also my Mother’s, while I prayed about this trip. When we tell our story about Franky, my Mom says over and over again, “We’ve always known that our family was incomplete.” But honestly, I never knew that until a year ago when my Mom was really considering adoption through the foster care system. I had always wanted a sister, older or younger, didn’t matter. I’ve always to be a big sister, live in a big family, with lots of older and younger siblings….just like the Waltons! Haha. But, I never thought that small desire was God’s will for my family. And it turns out that that was a HUGE desire in my Mom’s heart. I guess we just never talked about it….until a year ago.
Now, we’ve done foster care in the past, when I was really young, but after our license expired several years ago, we never renewed it. But, Mom brought the four of us together, and just laid it out there…”What do you guys think about getting our foster care license again, only fostering to adopt?” This rocked our world.
So, my desire for the privilege of being an older sister grew and grew until I realized that I had a little sister in this world, I just never knew her. Have you ever wanted something so bad, that you’re just miserable? The realization of the existence of my little sister broke my heart….and I didn’t even know her. Not a name, not a face, not a location of where she might be….but I knew she was out there. (I never expected China, though!!!)
My trip was in June, so from January to June, God had a lot to show me.
My family finished the process of getting their foster care license in January, so we did a lot of waiting. We inquired about several children, we drove many miles to meet some children, overnight stays, we developed attachments, to whenever things fell through, it hurt on both sides. To make a long story short, January to June – the first 6 months of 2011 were horrible. I got my hopes up a lot and many hearts were broken. I mean….God has a huge heart for orphans….when you feel like you’re finally doing something right, and everything goes wrong, it really hurts. It really does…I can’t explain the pain, tears, and sleepless nights that were experienced during this time. But, even though it was a dark time, God was still working…He was working at something SO much bigger than we had planned.
Besides the deal with fostering to adopt, God sent little signs after signs, reminding me that I was supposed to go to China. One of the many things that I’ve learned out of this, my fellow bloggers, is that we serve a God of details. To God, every little detail matters. Every single piece of the puzzle completes the big, pretty picture in the end.
I had no reason to believe that God did not create me to go to China. Tiny things would happen and I would just sit back and say, “Okay God… Another reminder that You want me in China...” Even the little old ladies at church, (that even prayed that I wouldn’t be able to go!) would hug me and say, “The Lord has amazing things for you, over there…”
One day, when I was talking to my Grandma, I said, “Man.. I don’t know what God has for me in China…but it’s going to be incredible.” And she answered, “Well, maybe you’ll find your sister?”
Bam. That sentence slapped me across the face. And for a moment, I felt like everything in my life made sense. When I think about it now, every detail, every predicament, every desire has led me to Luoyang, China….and I had no idea.
In mid-May, things were really crazy with getting geared for China. I had half way met some of the people of my team via Facebook, and I saw a link posted by someone from my team, it was a video on Youtube, posted by Show Hope….the children of MBHOH! And I was like, Oh yay! These are some of the kids I’m going to meet! My Mom and I were watching it, when it came to the clip of this little girl, with dark hair, and an ornery smile. I swear, it was only about three seconds long. But, when we saw it, we rewinded it and paused it on this little girl, named, Franky. It was crazy, because she looked exactly like myself, when I was around a year and a half. The smile, the hair, (if hers were only curlier!) and even the way she was standing, the mischievous look on her face….we all stopped and was like, “She so looks like Emily!” We compared the paused picture on the video and one of my baby pictures, it was crazy.
Three weeks later, I was China bound!
We left on the 3rd of June, Friday, and arrived at MBHOH, late, on Sunday night. Monday morning, the whole team went nuts, so eager to see the babies that we’ve only heard about and seen pictures of! I was incredibly pumped myself, and pretty much just followed other people around, since this was a whole new ballgame for me.
That afternoon, we had our first team devotion at MBHOH. One of our leaders, Chris Wheeler, told us to pick one of the children – not to pick favorites….but, like, there are a lot of children in that big house, and as our team of 21, and as one person, we obviously can’t love on every single child, but we can love one. So, our goal for the week was to pick one child, learn about them – their likes, dislikes, medical problems, etc., and just love them. Be God’s hands to them.
My mind automatically went to Franky. I hadn’t met her yet, I didn’t know where she was in that building, or if she was even still there. And I got scared. I was so afraid that she wasn’t there anymore. It was a feeling that I don’t think I ever experienced before…. I felt like I was going to burst into tears at any given moment. I don’t know why, because I didn’t know a thing about her. My wonders of her were based on a three second video clip.
So, my heart raced rapidly, as I walked up to our other leader, Melissa, to ask if she was there, and where she was.
Yes. She lives in the Jungle Book Room, on the first floor.
I think I ran all the way down the first floor and to the Jungle Book Room. Then, I walk in…and there she is. I opened the green door, and she was waiting on the other side, ran to me, arms up. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even know what to feel. I had my notebook with an empty page, ready to fill out everything I could learn about this kid, my ink pen, and my blue water bottle.
There was a group of people, Nannies, and children in the middle of the floor….smiles, laughter, joy….and I sat on the outside of the clump of people, sitting on the mat, just trying to grasp everything. Franky would take all of my things, rip my notebook to pieces, and she carried my water bottle throughout that whole room. And she just stared at me, never taking her eyes off of me. It was as if she knew that there was something about me, as I knew that there was something about her as well.
The first and only words that I could find to put in my devotion book, and in my China journal, was, “I’ve found her. I found my sister.”
This is a really long blog, so I decided to stop here. I feel like I’ve shared a lot, but I’ll share more of the time we spent together, later on.
-Emily Edwards
My name is Emily Edwards. As of now, I live in a house with my Mom and my Dad, my older, biological brother, and my two younger foster brothers, in a tiny, tiny town in Indiana. Franky, soon to be renamed Sophia, is my little sister. She will complete our home soon, but for now, she is still in China.
Not quite two years ago, I received a subscription email from Steven Curtis Chapman’s website, inviting students to join Show Hope (an organization to care for orphans) in visiting special needs orphans at a special care center, Maria’s Big House of Hope (MBHOH). Located in Luoyang, China, MBHOH is a huge, 6 story, blue building that houses and provides medical attention to some of the most precious children.
Two things that stuck out when I read the email were 1) children and 2) China. I’ve developed an interesting fascination with China’s culture and its people ever since I was 10 years old and attended a Mission’s Camp where missionaries in China came as the Camp Missionaries. God has also put a love in my heart for babies, and young children. I enjoy teaching them about God’s love and trying to get inside of their understandings and thoughts about life, Jesus, etc. The mind of my four year old brother, Kadin, completely amuses me.
Anyways. I spent the whole year of 2010 praying about applying to go on this 12 day trip to Luoyang, China. The more I talked about it, the more those around me thought I was crazy to want this. But, applying in November, and getting accepted in January, God has shown me over and over again that it has always been in His favor for me to serve in China.
The Lord wasn’t only moving in my heart, but also my Mother’s, while I prayed about this trip. When we tell our story about Franky, my Mom says over and over again, “We’ve always known that our family was incomplete.” But honestly, I never knew that until a year ago when my Mom was really considering adoption through the foster care system. I had always wanted a sister, older or younger, didn’t matter. I’ve always to be a big sister, live in a big family, with lots of older and younger siblings….just like the Waltons! Haha. But, I never thought that small desire was God’s will for my family. And it turns out that that was a HUGE desire in my Mom’s heart. I guess we just never talked about it….until a year ago.
Now, we’ve done foster care in the past, when I was really young, but after our license expired several years ago, we never renewed it. But, Mom brought the four of us together, and just laid it out there…”What do you guys think about getting our foster care license again, only fostering to adopt?” This rocked our world.
So, my desire for the privilege of being an older sister grew and grew until I realized that I had a little sister in this world, I just never knew her. Have you ever wanted something so bad, that you’re just miserable? The realization of the existence of my little sister broke my heart….and I didn’t even know her. Not a name, not a face, not a location of where she might be….but I knew she was out there. (I never expected China, though!!!)
My trip was in June, so from January to June, God had a lot to show me.
My family finished the process of getting their foster care license in January, so we did a lot of waiting. We inquired about several children, we drove many miles to meet some children, overnight stays, we developed attachments, to whenever things fell through, it hurt on both sides. To make a long story short, January to June – the first 6 months of 2011 were horrible. I got my hopes up a lot and many hearts were broken. I mean….God has a huge heart for orphans….when you feel like you’re finally doing something right, and everything goes wrong, it really hurts. It really does…I can’t explain the pain, tears, and sleepless nights that were experienced during this time. But, even though it was a dark time, God was still working…He was working at something SO much bigger than we had planned.
Besides the deal with fostering to adopt, God sent little signs after signs, reminding me that I was supposed to go to China. One of the many things that I’ve learned out of this, my fellow bloggers, is that we serve a God of details. To God, every little detail matters. Every single piece of the puzzle completes the big, pretty picture in the end.
I had no reason to believe that God did not create me to go to China. Tiny things would happen and I would just sit back and say, “Okay God… Another reminder that You want me in China...” Even the little old ladies at church, (that even prayed that I wouldn’t be able to go!) would hug me and say, “The Lord has amazing things for you, over there…”
One day, when I was talking to my Grandma, I said, “Man.. I don’t know what God has for me in China…but it’s going to be incredible.” And she answered, “Well, maybe you’ll find your sister?”
Bam. That sentence slapped me across the face. And for a moment, I felt like everything in my life made sense. When I think about it now, every detail, every predicament, every desire has led me to Luoyang, China….and I had no idea.
In mid-May, things were really crazy with getting geared for China. I had half way met some of the people of my team via Facebook, and I saw a link posted by someone from my team, it was a video on Youtube, posted by Show Hope….the children of MBHOH! And I was like, Oh yay! These are some of the kids I’m going to meet! My Mom and I were watching it, when it came to the clip of this little girl, with dark hair, and an ornery smile. I swear, it was only about three seconds long. But, when we saw it, we rewinded it and paused it on this little girl, named, Franky. It was crazy, because she looked exactly like myself, when I was around a year and a half. The smile, the hair, (if hers were only curlier!) and even the way she was standing, the mischievous look on her face….we all stopped and was like, “She so looks like Emily!” We compared the paused picture on the video and one of my baby pictures, it was crazy.
Three weeks later, I was China bound!
We left on the 3rd of June, Friday, and arrived at MBHOH, late, on Sunday night. Monday morning, the whole team went nuts, so eager to see the babies that we’ve only heard about and seen pictures of! I was incredibly pumped myself, and pretty much just followed other people around, since this was a whole new ballgame for me.
That afternoon, we had our first team devotion at MBHOH. One of our leaders, Chris Wheeler, told us to pick one of the children – not to pick favorites….but, like, there are a lot of children in that big house, and as our team of 21, and as one person, we obviously can’t love on every single child, but we can love one. So, our goal for the week was to pick one child, learn about them – their likes, dislikes, medical problems, etc., and just love them. Be God’s hands to them.
My mind automatically went to Franky. I hadn’t met her yet, I didn’t know where she was in that building, or if she was even still there. And I got scared. I was so afraid that she wasn’t there anymore. It was a feeling that I don’t think I ever experienced before…. I felt like I was going to burst into tears at any given moment. I don’t know why, because I didn’t know a thing about her. My wonders of her were based on a three second video clip.
So, my heart raced rapidly, as I walked up to our other leader, Melissa, to ask if she was there, and where she was.
Yes. She lives in the Jungle Book Room, on the first floor.
I think I ran all the way down the first floor and to the Jungle Book Room. Then, I walk in…and there she is. I opened the green door, and she was waiting on the other side, ran to me, arms up. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even know what to feel. I had my notebook with an empty page, ready to fill out everything I could learn about this kid, my ink pen, and my blue water bottle.
There was a group of people, Nannies, and children in the middle of the floor….smiles, laughter, joy….and I sat on the outside of the clump of people, sitting on the mat, just trying to grasp everything. Franky would take all of my things, rip my notebook to pieces, and she carried my water bottle throughout that whole room. And she just stared at me, never taking her eyes off of me. It was as if she knew that there was something about me, as I knew that there was something about her as well.
The first and only words that I could find to put in my devotion book, and in my China journal, was, “I’ve found her. I found my sister.”
This is a really long blog, so I decided to stop here. I feel like I’ve shared a lot, but I’ll share more of the time we spent together, later on.
-Emily Edwards
sweet tooth, just like her big sis:)
Emily, words cannot express how proud and pleased Donn and I both are for your heart to minister in China, the land we love, and deep compassion for the people (the ones we love with an everlasting & deep love). Only Father can open our eyes and hearts with that kind of love! So excited you have found your sister and followed Father's leading in obedience and faith! Always, always do that and your life will be an adventure you cannot even imagine! Love you little sister! Dianne Broeker
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