The Hamiter 6: Micah Ralls Hamiter

Micah Ralls Hamiter

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you." John 14:18

We were about to leave for Disney World, a bit exhausted and maybe a bit discouraged in the spot where we were in the adoption process. We had seen a couple of files, that the Lord clearly said, no, she's not yours. And no, he's not your child. I can't begin to explain how gut wrenching and heart breaking it is to look at a file, pray about the child, and hearing the Lord say, no, they're not yours. When we began walking this adoption journey, we were just so excited to meet our child. We knew we were walking the road of a special needs child from China. Maybe I was naive, but I never dreamed we would be saying no to one. When that day came, I was literally sick to my stomach. But as always, God is good and gracious to provide the grace and strength we need when we need it. I had to keep reminding myself, even though it would be so easy to disobey and say yes, (i mean, why would it be a "bad" thing to take ANY orphan!) that this child was meant for a different family, and my son or daughter is still out there. And sure enough, those children are now matched, and it wasn't but a couple of weeks that they were! Praise Him!
Right before we left for Disney, we saw Micah on Lifeline's website. His picture immediately struck a chord with me. (the one above, bottom right) It had been awhile since we had seen those other files, but I showed him to Trace and said, I would really like to ask about him...but when we return from Disney. I was desperately afraid the Lord telling us no again. Our trip to Disney was SO FUN, and such a precious time for our family, and when we got back...we asked about Micah the next day. The days following were SO fast, and so clearly ordained by the Father. We saw his file, could not let him out of our thoughts, prayed for him, and about our decision and within 2 weeks, he was "tentatively" ours. (There is a long series of events that had to occur to make it "official.")
I mentioned that Micah is a special needs child. He was born with a cleft lip and palate. His cleft lip has been repaired in China, (and they did an OUTSTANDING job!) and he will have his palate corrected here in the States when we return. I am so thankful for the doctors that took great care of him, and performed an awesome surgery on him!

We chose his name not long after we were matched. We have always loved the name Micah, and have Ralls is a family name. Micah means, "there is no one like our God" or "how great is our God." It didn't take us long to nail down his name! We couldn't find a more perfect name to name him other than one that shows God's faithfulness in leading us to him. Ralls is Trace's grandmother's maiden name. She has played a HUGE and integral role in Trace's life, and over the past 12 years, she been such an immense blessing and encouragement to me in every sense of the word as well. We always want Micah to know, that although he was not born into this family, he is just as much a part of our future heritage as anyone else! So we thought it was perfect to give him Ralls as a middle name.

Micah is 3 years old, and has been living at Love Manor orphanage for about 2 years. Here is a link to a great news segment on Love Manor of Chongqing! We are SO thankful that while he was waiting for us, he has been living here. Love Manor is being sponsored right now by Unicef, and is the model for every other orphanage in China. They are working towards making their entire orphanage a "foster family unit" facility. This is where they would have a legally married chinese couple, living in the orphanage with 3-5 children living, eating and sleeping with them. Micah has not been in one of these families, but we are thankful for the good care he has received until now.
I'll leave you with a few of the more recent pictures we have of him!