The Reader's Digest Boy

"By God's grace He chose to use New Day, its volunteers, and its generous donors to save our son's life before we knew his name. The New Day family prayed for, provided for, nurtured and loved our son before we were able to." -Jenna, talking about her son Cooper.

I am super-excited about this next week on our little blog. In the final 7 days of our fundraising drive for NDFH's medical/surgical fund, I've lined up 7 NDFH adoptive families to share their stories with you.  I hope that as we read them, we each remember that it could have been our child who needed the love and compassion of strangers to save their lives.  The little ones who benefit from the medical/surgical funds we raise this summer could be our sons and daughters.  We have one week to raise $2,500 to reach our summertime goal of $30,000, which is a lot of surgeries and acute medical care for little ones who need us to carry them through.  I have no doubt that we can accomplish this goal; giving a few more children the chance to know the love of a family.

First up, we have Jenna, sharing her son Cooper's story.

10 short months ago we had the privilege of bringing home our son, Cooper, from China. While we were having his medical review done previous to accepting his referral, the international adoption specialist we consulted with about his health told us that from his medical records it seemed as though Cooper was "pulled back just in time from the precipice of death" when he had his surgery at 13 months old.

She told us that he is a "Reader's Digest" child. Unfamiliar with that term, we asked her what she meant. She said that he is a child that defied the odds. That by all human explanation should not be alive, but is alive only because of a string of really "lucky" and timely events -- and he is the kind of child that ends up being featured in Reader's Digest when they go on to do great things.

"By all human explanation." "Lucky."

No. There is not a human explanation, and luck had nothing to do with it.

We have the joy of hearing Cooper laugh big belly laughs because of the amazing people at New Day Foster Home in China who cooperated with God to bring him all the way from the other side of China, and provide him with the surgery that saved his life.

We have the privilege of snuggling Cooper close when he is afraid because of people who give faithfully and generously to New Day's ministry to allow them to provide life-saving surgeries for children who have little hope of survival otherwise and no one else to advocate for them.

We have the opportunity to teach Cooper about the God who loves him and created him because of New Day volunteers and supporters who pray faithfully and fervently for the kids while they are in surgery with no mom or dad to pray for them.

We are humbled anew by Cooper's presence every day at the dinner table, in the car, snuggled up on the couch, and while brushing teeth at bedtime, and reminded of the kind of difference New Day and the New Day family of supporters made in our lives. Because there is nothing we could have done to make it so. By God's grace He chose to use New Day, its volunteers, and its generous donors to save our son's life before we knew his name. The New Day family prayed for, provided for, nurtured and loved our son before we were able to.

As parents, there are not words to express what that means to us, to our family, and what it will ultimately mean to Cooper when he is old enough to truly understand.

God is writing amazing stories through the lives of the children that are saved at New Day. Kids that "by all human explanation" should not be alive, but are, because of God's grace and power to be "plantings of the Lord for the display of His splendor."

We are simply left to stand in humble amazement for all that God has done, and to praise and thank Him daily for allowing us to be part of the story.

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Jenna writes at her blog, Many Colored Days.