Happy New Year!

Below we have copied something Laurie’s Dad wrote at Christmas – it is a beautiful “picture” of our Ruthie.

Christmas Present

Her eyes are dark sparkling pools, fashioned like almonds, their corners crinkling when she smiles and laughs ~ which is often. Her feathery coal-black hair, gathered  together with a hair tie, shoots straight up, falling like a fountain that crowns her little head. Her cheeks are chubby and pink, with twin dimples that suddenly appear just  below the corners of her merry mouth. She is totally beautiful, with a sweet personality to match. Ruthie is the most contented baby I have ever seen.

Ruth is a very special chosen child. Named after many family members: her mother, her mother’s mother, her great aunt, a great-great aunt and a second cousin are all her heritage. But these Ruths in turn, were all named after a marvelous foreign, non-Jewish woman who became a great-great-great-something grandmother to Jesus; Ruth of the Old Testament, was a faithful young woman whose husband having just died, followed after her grieving, widowed mother-in-law to a strange and different land saying, “Where you go, I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.” (Ruth 1:16)

So it is with little one-year-old Ruthie. She has just immigrated from the home of her birth to a strange and different land, a land that her countrymen would shiveringly think of  as cold and inhospitable, especially in winter. If only her people could have seen the warmth of her welcome to the snow-swept and wintry plains of Western Canada.

Her mother is Laurie our oldest daughter, who has faithfully ministered alongside Donna and me since 1988. Almost ten years ago, still single and with no ‘prospects’ on the horizon, Laurie heard from God one night as she was driving home on a dark and lonely road. In obedience, she applied to adopt a special needs baby girl from another culture. Denial was disappointing, but Laurie placed her ‘word from the Lord’ on a shelf and went on with her life. As you may have read earlier in these pages, Laurie met Pete Worrall from Australia and they were married three years ago just before Christmas. Suddenly her ‘word’ jumped back off the shelf.

In the words of Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, when she greeted Mary, “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” (Luke 1:45)

On their third anniversary, Laurie and Pete flew away to meet their daughter (after a whole year of a sometimes challenging process). Upon their triumphant return a week later, the tiny airport where we live seemed filled with welcomers all wanting to meet this little angel from the East.

Ruth is from Taiwan, Chinese by birth. Dr John Langdon Down (a British physician 150 years ago), lent his name to the condition which has touched Ruthie. Laurie had known all along that her baby would carry Dr Down’s Syndrome. Is this a blessing or a curse? Sadly, our society today identifies the syndrome even before birth, and widely considers these little angels to be nothing but trash, to be plucked from the womb and dumped in the garbage. Ruthie is only a blessing!

But these, and other babies with differences, can be absolute blessings to their families. Did I say it would be easy? Of course there will be challenges. But with any kind of adoption, not only does the child become part of a family, that family ~ even through tough times ~ is the better for it.

Ruthie is the third adoption in our immediate family. Our niece Lisa (a former YWAMer and a twin herself), is on a difficult quest to adopt twin boys, abandoned in a garbage bin at birth because they had club feet. Donna and I have met these now two-year olds ~ they are being cared for in a YWAM ministry for so-called “unwanted” children. Please pray that all the government bureaucracy and red tape will be cut through quickly for Lisa and her husband Kent.

For many years I myself would not even consider adoption; but one day God got through to me. We are all adopted into God’s family (Romans 8:15). Would you ask the Lord if God has an ‘unwanted angel’ out there for you?

You might say we have come full circle. For me personally, this is the fulfilment of a dream of my own ~ and perhaps of my Mom & Dad too, who served as missionaries in China and Taiwan for many years; I am stamped, “Made in China,” and am now able to fully embrace a tiny part of that great people into my own family (although Donna and I have already been ‘adopted’ by many Chinese around the world).

Christmas Blessings to you and yours,
Peter Jordan

We have had a very eventful 2 weeks of being a family back in Canada – getting to know each other better as well as family and friends.  Ruthie is an amazing baby, bringing so much joy to everyone she meets.  She is getting her 2 big front upper teeth – the are going to be so cute!  Teething is no fun to say the least!  But Ruthie is a trooper!

We continue to trust God daily for our needs – food, rent, diapers…  Being in full time missions is a privilege for us!  Trusting God for our daily needs is not always easy, but we know we are where God wants us!  If you feel to partner with us financially, please drop us a note and we will let you know how you can get a tax receipt.

Thank you for your lovely words of encouragement and prayers!  Please keep them coming!

Here are a few more pictures,

Love Pete and Laurie

I love my bath!

First trip to the mall...LOVE IT!...just like Mom & Cuz Leilani