The Red Thread

There is an ancient Chinese proverb that says:

"An invisible red thread connects those destined to meet, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. The thread may stretch or tangle, but never break."

This proverb is recited often in the realm of Chinese adoption. Sometimes the telling of it is deeper, stating that when a child is born an invisible red thread ties them to the people who will be of great importance in their life. As they grow, the thread is pulled tighter, drawing these people to them.



A few weeks ago it crossed my mind to look back at my daytimer for May 2009 to see what we were doing when Grace was born. I was stunned when I realized that the week of her birth was the same week that Joel and I felt the call to pursue adoption. In fact, she was discovered at the front gate of her orphanage on the 6th, and within 24 hours of that date we had made the commitment to adopt and begun searching for her. That started with following God's leading to the China adoption program, and then being led to our amazing agency. We submitted our application to CCAI about a month later.



I believe that the red thread does exist, and that my Father has the needle in his hand. He is knitting together our family in a way that we never could have done on our own. In an obscure town in the interior of China, a little girl is waiting for a family that she doesn't yet know. In His infinite wisdom, he chose her as our daughter.