The Lord Remembers

"God sets the lonely in families"

Psalm 67:6a

On June 27^th 2012, we accepted the referral of Qin Wei Zhong.  He turns 2 in November.

We have added to his nickname list, “The Little Emperor.”  When he comes home he is sure to rule over all of us and home.  We can not wait to love and care for him.  The 5 of us seem to be fighting over him already, taking dibs on certain activities.  He waits in Xian, China, 4,251 miles away from us, for now.

Many prayers were answered while we waited each month for a referral that we felt the Lord had prepared just for us.  One small but very detailed prayer was answered.  You see, all of the Carollo birthdays fall in order from oldest to youngest throughout the calendar year:  Jim’s is early January, mine late January, Mia’s June, Anna’s July, and Christian’s early November.  We had prayed on several occasions that our new son’s birthday would trail somewhere behind Christian’s but before the year ended.  One of the first pieces of information we received about our son was that Qin Wei Zhong’s birthday is in late November, hmmm, right in line with our family.

Another detail…just 24 hours before we received the referral, we had dinner with a couple of families.  When we had shared with our friends that we were now open to “limb difference,” one of our friends chimed in with, “You know, my dad only had one arm.”  I had totally forgotten that piece of information!  What a testimony it was to hear that someone can have a full life with only one arm.  If fact it was so normal for our friend Jason that his dad only had one arm, he had neglected to mention it to his, now wife, before their first introduction.  Our friend Bess said she was pretty shocked and had asked Jason why he didn’t prep her for that.  He answered, “I didn’t think anything of it.”

Qin Wei Zhong was born with one hand.  Qin Wei Zhong is an answer to our prayers.  He is healthy just the way he is and not in need of any surgeries, another answer to prayer for us.

The evening of June 27^th, 2012, we celebrated our new son.  We stayed up late as a family voting on baby names.  Over the next couple of days we settled on Zachary James Carollo.  Zachary means, “The Lord Remembers.”

Hang on baby, we are coming to bring you home.