All about Zeke

We saw Zeke online about 3 months ago and right away he caught our eye. We sat and searched every picture of him we could. He was not listed on our agency's site so, I couldn't get much information on him at all. I continued to watch him and love all his pictures and prayed about him. I asked our social worker about him, but could not get many answers. As I was searching all of his photos, I came across a post saying that there was 2 kids in the orphanage he is staying that has a partnership with our agency and he was one of them! I was like, really?! Woah! I felt God tugging on my heart. I started to dig further, but still hit a wall and could not get many answers. We were told he did not have a file, so he was not able to be adopted at this time. It could take 6-12 months to even prepare a file if they were even doing that for him. So, he became impossible for us. But still, we could not get him out of our minds and our hearts. I thought, maybe God is just putting him on our hearts to get us excited for our own child or to give us a face to be excited for while we go through some of the hard parts of adoption we were facing. Or maybe God just wants us to pray for this particular orphan. So, thats just what we did. But no matter how many other kids we looked at, I could not get this little guy off my mind.

***I do need to add in, Zeke's name online was Grady! How crazy is that?! Not a very common name, but the same name as our 5 year old!

Ok, so, time passed and we continued in our process of adoption and also praying for this little boy. Then, we found out our friend's sister was going to be traveling to China on a missions trip to assess some of the kids who were partnered with our agency. And she was going to this little boy's orphanage! Of all the places.... she was going to see this little boy!!! Thoughts popped in my head... is she going to help prepare his file?! Is she going to assess him?! Is God really putting the pieces of this puzzle together?! Hope for this little boy got stronger! Could he really be ours?!

Right before our friends sister left, we received a phone call! “Grady's” file was AVAILABLE! And we got to see it that day!! And of course we put him on hold!! We took his file to a pediatrician for her to look over, but already in our hearts, we knew this was our child. God had MOVED THE MOUNTAINS for us to be matched with this little boy!

We sent in our Letter Of Intent for this little boy on May 4^th and received PreApproval for him on May 17^th!

Side note--- So, during this process of adoption, we felt God guiding us, but theres always that little bit of doubt... is this really God's will?! I mean, we don't like traveling, we said we'd never fly again, we haven't left our kids for more than one night.... This is HUGE! We felt God saying Yes, this is His will so we took that leap of faith and we pursued adoption! We kept moving forward little by little, inch by inch, but I had such little faith at times wondering if God would match us with a child. How would I know which child is ours? I searched and searched. I once thought a child was ours, but as we pursued him, God closed the doors for that child. Would that happen again? I mean, how would I know!

And God told me, Oh, Shauna, have faith, let me show you how I can move the mountains! And so He did! And He made it more than obvious that Zeke was our child! He opened those doors that seemed to be glued shut. I'm the type of person who needs to see the neon light saying, YES, this IS God's will, or NO, not this! And He gave me that Neon light and said, YES! He once again showed me, HE is on CONTROL! And I need to TRUST him! Oh – how this process has been such a trial of faith and trust! But it has grown me so much!

So, moving onto the name! Zeke Li! This is the name we picked for our little boy.

Zeke comes from the prophet Ezekiel. Ezekiel means God Strengthens or Strong. After reading Zeke's medical files, Zeke is a very strong little boy! He had what you call anal atresia when he was born and it was a miracle this little boy lived! He immediately had to have surgery and was not sure if he would live through it! But he held up to the name Zeke and he was strong! Ezekiel was also very much used by God and I know that Zeke will also be used by God! He already has! God very much showed us that this little boy's name is Zeke!

Li is his middle name. Li comes from Zeke's real name in China. We wanted to keep a part of his real name. But Li in China also means strong! So, it is very fitting for Zeke! He is a strong little boy! Zeke Li! A strong little boy who God will use for His glory!