Makenna Pelton   Chinese Name: Zhang Xin Guang(Zang Shin Guong) Born: 2-6-07 Height: 59 cm. Weight: 13.2 lbs.

 Our journey to Makenna began many years ago when Galen and I first met a couple who had adopted a little girl from China. At that time we commented to each other how wonderful it would be to be able to do the same thing someday. We figured that if the time was ever right to adopt, the Lord would make it clear to us.

 Over the years, the subject came up again off and on. Then in the spring of 2005, we went to our niece’s graduation in Tulsa, OK. There was a couple there who had been back from China with their daughter for only a few months. She was beautiful. Tina (the mom) shared with us about their experience and how wonderful it had been. She also told us about America World Adoption Association and said they were wonderful to work with.

 When we got home we begin doing some serious research and we also began to pray diligently asking the Lord if the time was right. My specific prayer was that the Lord would let us both know, separately, if it was His will for us to adopt a daughter from China. He answered that prayer and confirmed to each of us independently that we were to proceed. We were so excited when we talked about it together and determined that God had told us both the same thing! It was just like finding out we were pregnant!

The Lord further affirmed our decision when we asked our 3 boys what they thought about the idea. Without exception and without hesitation they all said, “Let’s do it”.

We spent about 5 months in the “paper pregnancy” stage which involved gathering lots of documents, having them notarized and authenticated, and having our home study done. Our dossier went to China on November 4, 2005 and it was logged in to the China Centers for Adoption Affairs on November 22, 2005. We are now in the waiting stage. This is actually more difficult because we can’t do anything to speed up the process. We trust that the Lord is using this time to prepare us for Makenna and to prepare her for us.

One of the things the Lord used to speak to my heart was a beautiful song entitled, “He Knows My Name” written by Tommy Walker. Even though we don’t know our beautiful little girl’s (chinese) name yet, our Heavenly Father does.