What’s in a Name?
From a huge miracle (avoiding a historical pandemic) to tiny, precious details (a nickname at the orphanage), God showed up in amazing ways to bring little Joshua home to his permanent family.
His mom, Crystal, shared with the Lifesong team…
“We saw God most clearly work through the timing of our adoption.
He placed an urgency on our hearts during our second adoption. My husband and I clearly felt God pushing us to bring our son home as soon as possible. We are so glad God made that clear to us because we never could have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic that showed up shortly after we returned home. Our sweet boy would still be waiting for us had God not promoted us to take action!
During that rushed period, Lifesong stepped in at just the right time. Our accounts were empty, so we were running three huge fundraisers simultaneously and waiting for funds to come in. But then came Lifesong with a matching grant! God had perfect timing through them… as He always does.
Sweet Details
This may sound crazy, but a sweet detail God wove into our story came about while we were brainstorming names. I really wanted to name our son Henry, but my husband decided against it. Our son Nathan said he would like to throw out a name too, so he confidently declared that we should name him Spike. We all had a good laugh.
When we were matched with Joshua 6 months later, we received his medical file and his “advocacy name” for the file (which is just a name the United States gives the file to make it easier to pronounce). You guessed it—his advocacy name was Henry.
But that’s not all.
While looking through his file, we found some random fun facts about Joshua’s personality, things he likes, etc. One report, in particular, said, “He is fun, playful, and the orphanage nannies like to call him Spike.”
This is when I got chills.
Only God can orchestrate such fun, meaningful details of our son’s tragic story and make it His own.
What a story we have for our Little Joshua. He is such a blessing to us!
Lifesong helped make both of our adoptions possible!
They have been a Godsend—to us, our church, and our community. We love that we had a central place to fundraise (mySTORY) and could tell family and friends to go there when they wanted to support us. For our second adoption, we were blessed to also fundraise through Gobena coffee. Lifesong is a steady conduit that God used to bring both our babies home.”