Somewhere Out There – Song #2

The song Somewhere Out There was released in 1986 and recorded by Linda Ronstadt and James Ingram for the soundtrack of An American Tail.  The lyrics convey the love felt by two people separated by vast distances, but they are encouraged by the belief that their love will eventually reunite them to be with each other once again. This song is very special to me because I listened to it a lot during the ten-weeks we waited for the day we were to catch a flight out of the Los Angeles International Airport to fly to Hong Kong, China. This was the first city in China that launched our trek across the country of China to be united with our baby and secure the legal documents to adopt her.  

Click on this Link to go to Lyrics and song on YouTube

On October 31, 1997 we received a FedEx package from China that contained a picture of our daughter along with a letter and medical records that were typed in Mandarin. The English translation of these papers informed us that the picture was taken of her 10 months ago, she was found in a basket at the doorstep of the house of a prominent man in Jingdezhen when she was one-month old, she was malnourished and underweight and had been under the care of an orphanage managed by the Jingdezhen Social Welfare for the past 14 months.  We had to make the biggest decision of our lives based on this scarcity of information.

My husband and I stared at the picture for a long time in silence.  I noticed the sadness in her dark, black eyes, so we decided right then and there we would love her for the rest of our lives.

I took the picture of this sad baby with the oversize red jacket to Staples and had the print center make a color copy of it 5 times larger than its original size and then raced back home and hung it on the refrigerator where it stayed during the long ten-week wait for our flight to China. 

These are the lines in the song that moved me to tears during the waiting period: 

Somewhere out there beneath the pale moonlight, someone’s thinking of me and loving me tonight.

Somewhere out there someone’s saying a prayer that we’ll find one another in that big somewhere out there.

Every time I walked by the refrigerator I would speak to my daughter in the picture and say, “We are coming to get you baby, hold on, we love you.”  I would listen to the song in the car and sing along at the top of my lungs, which would inevitably cause me to break down and cry as I thought about her being alone in a crib in the orphanage and having no idea she had a mommy and daddy who were praying for her every day and longing to hold her.

That fateful day of January 9, 1998 finally came for us to drive to LAX and get on that flight to China.  It was at the gate that we met Kim and Chris Reed for the first time.  They were the couple from the East Coast who were to travel with us to China to meet our daughters. After an 11-hour flight we landed in Hong Kong where we spent a night. The next morning, we took a fast train to Guangzhou where we had very little time to figure out how to catch our flight to Nanchang, China where we would meet our daughters for the first time.

After 36 hours and numerous cab and van rides, two flights and a fast train, we arrived at our hotel in Nanchang, China exhausted and thinking we had time to rest.  After just one short hour, we were called to the hotel lobby to meet our baby girl.  The minute she was placed in my arms, I fell hopelessly in love with her.  She was my daughter for the rest of my life.

What does this song and our adoption experience have to do with heaven?   The lyrics of this song remind me that even though we don’t see God while on this earth, we can trust that he is thinking of us and loving us every moment of our journey on this earth.

God longs for us to be together with him in heaven.

Just as I was longing to finally meet my daughter and hold her in my arms, God is longing for that day when we will meet him face to face and be safe in heaven in his arms.  Just like my daughter had no idea how much we were praying for her and loving her as she laid in that crib without the love of a mother or father, we too can have no idea that God is sending his angels to comfort and help us when we feel abandoned, alone and afraid. 

Do you believe that in your darkest hour, there is a God who is loving you and longing to bring you to heaven where you will be safe and secure?   Do you believe we are all orphans who have a loving father who has done everything he possibly could do through his son Jesus to secure our adoption as sons and daughters of his?  

The Living Bible version of Ephesians 1:4-5 says:

Long ago, even before he made the world, God chose us to be his very own through what Christ would do for us; he decided then to make us holy in his eyes, without a single fault – we who stand before him covered with his love.  His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us.  And he did this because he wanted to!

Thank you, God, for allowing me to experience the adoption process so that I could understand all the preparation and thought and love that goes into bringing a child into my heart and home.  Thank you, God, for all the preparation, thought and love that went into adopting me as your daughter.  I am eternally grateful for all you have done so that I might possibly love you back and accept you as my father. 

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