ebs photography

This is an important day today in the Smith house. It is Eliza’s official “gotcha” day… the day she was first placed in our arms. This is a very long post and one that my husband was sweet enough to write for all of you. I wanted to take the time to share my families story with all of you. It is very personal and not at all business…. so if you visit just for my precious client images… skip this post.

It was October 2004 and we were headed to Church as we did every Sunday.  Slaton, our oldest boy had just turned one and we were settling into our “family of three” routine.  Little did we know that our whole picture of “family life” was about to change.

We were starting a new series as Church this Sunday, I can’t remember what the series was about, but that’s not what was important.  After the services, lunch was served in the fellowship hall and prizes were being given out from a drawing.  There were several items that I found interesting, especially the Atlanta Falcons tickets for the upcoming game with New Orleans.  I love the Falcons and I am happy to say that Slaton is becoming a little Falcon fan too.  Then it happened my number was called.  We had won!  But the Falcon tickets had already been taken…all that we left for me to choose from was some silly passes for a spa day or concert tickets for some guy named Steven Curtis Chapman.  I didn’t know who he was at the time, I wasn’t even a fan of contemporary Christian music, but I was sure that Elizabeth and I would have a lot more fun at a concert and a date night was something we were both in need of and looking forward to.

The night of the concert came quickly.  Grand mommy came to take care of our little Slaton and we were off.  I never noticed that the Devil was working against us that night, it seemed like we just couldn’t get ourselves together to get out of the house, one delay after another until finally we were on our way.  The drive took forever as we drove from our Smyrna home in Cobb County all the way across northern Atlanta to the Gwinnett Arena.  We were hungry so we stopped for diner.  During diner we almost decided to skip the concert because we were running so late.  Third Day opened the show…. we were still having our appetizer.  We finally finished our meal and decided to make our way to the show.

Our seats were in the 7th row center section right in front of the stage.  Some guy named Chris Tomlin was just finishing his set and he had the crowed singing “How Great is Our God”.  12,000 voices sang that phrase over and over as the band walked off the stage and crowd sang on.  I still remember that this was the first time I had ever heard this song.  And a little voice started telling me that tonight was no ordinary night.

Here is where I need to give you a little history on Elizabeth and me.  I knew that Elizabeth had always had a heart that was open to adoption or foster care, but I just couldn’t see why a perfectly healthy and fertile couple would ever want to adopt.  Or why you would want to let the troubles of world invade your home in the form of a needy children.  Why should we when we could just create our own perfect child? We had done it once, so certainly we could repeat for child number 2 … right?  Slaton was the joy of our lives.  He had and continues to bless us everyday that we know him.  For me, it wasn’t about the number of children that would make up our family; I just always thought that they would have to be our biological children.

Steven Curtis Chapman took the stage.  It was evident that this man was as transparent as glass with a heart full of God’s grace.  This show was not about being a rock star, or about how you have the personality to command a room of 12,000 people just to say “look at me, see what I can do”.  He poured out his heart through his songs about what God had done for him in his life.  Songs about God’s love and his perfect gift that gives us hope for eternal life.  This was a night of praise and worship, like I had never heard.

Half way through his set, he stopped and he said I have something I want you all to see.  A giant screen dropped from the ceiling, the lights came down, and a video started to play that described the plight of young children in China.  All of them orphaned as infants abandoned at birth by mothers that could not keep them for their own.  The lucky ones were left in public places or at government buildings where their mothers knew they would be found.  The un-lucky ones were drowned at birth or left in a field where no one would ever know they existed.  These infants had done nothing wrong.  They were not the enemies of society.  They were victims of a culture that de-valued women and a government that forbade families to have more than one child.  My heart was pierced.  And for the first time ever, my eyes were opened to the idea of adoption.  But I still wasn’t sold on the idea for my family.

By this time, we were moving into the holiday season and we were visiting with friends and family, which meant we were traveling a good bit.  In four weeks, we found ourselves sitting in four separate Churches, listening to four separate sermons prepared by four individual pastors that had no connection with each other.  Each and every one of these sermons had a common theme, a theme that was first presented to us by the Apostle Paul in his writings to the Church at Ephesus.

How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
Ephesians 1:3-6 (The Message)

You may wonder if God still talks to us today.  I cannot explain what I heard in the closing months of 2004 as anything else than God speaking to me, to say adoption is good.  Don’t be afraid to take a child into your home and to raise her as you own, giving her all the rights, blessing, privileges and inheritance that is equally given to you own sons.  After all, this is what I have done for you through my son Jesus Christ.

As I continued to study, I found that God has always protected the orphans of the world through warnings not to take advantage of them (Exodus 22:22-44), blessings on those that defend them (Deuteronomy 10:18), and commandments to his people to provide for them (Deuteronomy 14:28, 24:19-22).  God loves orphans more than we ever give him credit for.

In February 2005, Elizabeth and I contacted Chinese Children’s Adoptions International (CCAI) and started our journey to find our daughter.  A few months later, God blessed us with the news that we would be having another son.  Shipley joined our family in March of 2006.  Eight short months later, on November 6th, 2006 we met our daughter in an orphanage in the south western regions of China in the city of Fuling and we brought her home to be our daughter and sister to Slaton and Shipley.

You can find out more about the events leading up to and our travels through China by visiting Eliza’s Blog.

Now that you have read the story…. here are a few key highlights of Eliza.

Here she is on Gotcha Day. She was the only baby who cried… and certainly the only baby who cried for THREE hours straight. She strongly grieved the loss of her care givers.

She cried so much she had me crying too!

We got back just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas that year. Eliza wanted nothing to do with anyone (including Santa) except mom and dad!

Over the next year Eliza was typically very serious and stern. She was not smiley and happy but rather somber and sad. Jeff and I would see moments of a cute, happy little girl at home but in public she was scared. We took her to the doctor because we realized she was not responding to pain. i was worried something was wrong with her. It turned out that it was a learned response to not having her needs addressed in the orphanage. She now cries when in pain and let’s us know when something is bothering her.

Santa pictures this year were a little bit easier. However, this was the fourth time we tried and she did cry for all three of the first tries!

Then came 2008… the year Eliza finally began to adjust to everything.


Eliza now goes to her class at school and never, ever cries. She has a hilarious sense of humor (I know very few children with a sense of humor- this is very special) and a laugh that is infectious. She is funny and extremely smart. She is such a joy and blessing and Jeff and I thank God daily for allowing us to be her parents! We love Eliza so much and today is so special for our family!