“God placed an abandoned Korean baby in our home so that almost 40 years later she could minister and provide the help we needed most at this time in our lives”
by Mike Query
Matthew 6:7-8 “When you pray, do not use a lot of meaningless words, as the pagans do, who think that their gods will hear them because their prayers are long. Do not be like them. Your Father already knows what you need before you ask him.” GNB
So, we have the above verses, but just how far before the need arises does God provide? In my case, try 35 plus years!
In August of 1970, Jeri and I were blessed by the birth of our third child, Andy. It had been eight years since our second child was born and we weren’t trying to have any more, but God, in his infinite wisdom, knew that in order for us to have a fourth child, we needed Andy. Excuse me, a fourth?
Well, now we had a dilemma. Do we raise Andy with kids that are eight and nine years older, do we have another, or do we adopt? Since Jeri had Rh factor problems with Andy, it was decided that I should man-up, do the right thing and make sure there were no more surprises. Easy for her to say!
After some serious prayer, we were led by the Holy Spirit to take the third option. We contacted Holt International in early 1971 and were told that it would take 12 to 24 months for our daughter to arrive. Long story short, six months to the day after our first contact with Holt, she was carried off of an airplane in Eugene, Oregon and placed in our arms. Lee Byung Hee was 26 months old, and we named her Lani Jean.
Flash forward to 2006. I returned from a mission trip to Nigeria, and my doctor insisted that I have a second PSA test. It is elevated. They do the biopsy, and it comes back positive for stage I cancer. By this time Lani is a Registered Nurse at Oregon Health Sciences University Medical Center (OHSU) and before we can ask ourselves “what do we do next?” she has made appointments with heads of departments who work with prostate cancer. Eight weeks of IMRT radiation and three years later I am free of… well, at least prostate cancer.
So now we flash forward to January of 2010. We are just beginning to enjoy the warmth of Southern California, when the black bird of melanoma cancer flies up my nose and takes root on my septum. Lani, now a PhD student at OHSU, and her husband let us know in no uncertain terms that we will be heading back to Portland because she has made appointments with a cancer surgeon and two oncologists, starting in four days.
Lani has been relentless in getting appointments, providing us with information on melanoma, following up with doctors and secretaries, ensuring that everything is kept on schedule and progressing forward as quickly as possible; all this while she is trying to keep up with her Doctorate studies and care for a family of five. I am worn out just thinking of all she does in a day.
I belong to a loving God who knew what my needs would be before the foundations of the earth were in place. He placed an abandoned Korean baby in our home so that almost 40 years later she could minister and provide the help we needed most at this time in our lives. Was all of this by chance or coincidence? I don’t think so!
Parents usually wonder what impact a child will have on their lives in the future. There is no way we could have anticipated the blessing that Lani has been to us. Each of our kids brings special gifts to this family and makes it what it is. This is just the story of one. Our Heavenly Father truly does know beforehand what we need even before we know what to ask for. That is why it is so important to pray, because the answer is on the way.
Learn more about adopting a child from Korea
Learn about Holt’s Post Adoption Services
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