Micah: Chinese Gangster and Memory Maker

Adoption transforms both the child and the adoptive parents, revealing profound spiritual lessons in seemingly routine moments of care.

• Micah was adopted from Hong Kong at age 9 after never living outside a hospital or orphanage
• The JFK Center where Micah lived had never had a successful adoption in its 47-year history 
• There are approximately 150 million orphans worldwide, not counting homeless or trafficked children
• Micah lives with a brain malformation, epilepsy, and club feet that once confined him to a wheelchair
• After specialized surgery, Micah now walks independently despite his challenges
• Changing Micah's Spider-Man braces transformed from a mundane task to a meaningful ministry
• Finding Jesus in everyday caregiving routines turns ordinary work into worship
• We chose to adopt because God has adopted us into His family

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the Audio Memoir
• 1:20 Meeting Micah: Our Adoption Story
• 3:34 Micah's Medical Challenges
• 4:43 The Lesson of Spider-Man Braces
• 6:50 Call to Support Adoption

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Here for the memories thought-provoking audio memoir shorts filled with stories, humor, anecdotes and commentary on social, cultural, business and religious issues. Whatever Lyndon remembers and thinks will entertain, challenge and inform is a possible subject. The collection of memories about one's life allows for the development and refinement of a sense of self, including who one is, how one has changed and what one might be like in the future.

Speaker 2: 0:35

Greetings and salutations. This is Lyndon Wolfe and you have providentially found my audio memoir here for the the memories. I remind everyone again that it is not a podcast. It is about my stories, my life, my experiences, my opinions and leaving things behind, anecdotes that will remind people of who I was after I leave this planet. I hope they care enough to listen. I leave this planet. I hope they care enough to listen, but in my case there's a possibility, maybe even a probability, that they won't. But it's out there nonetheless. Glad you stopped by Visit often.

Speaker 2: 1:20

Micah is our adopted special needs son. I often tell people that he looks just like me. I wish I could show you a picture, but I also tell people he was the leader of a Chinese street gang. We adopted Micah when he was nine he, of course, is Chinese and we brought him home from Hong Kong. Up to that point he had never lived outside either a hospital or an orphanage. He received wonderful care in his special needs focused orphanage, something we doubt would have happened if he had remained in China. His final home there was the JFK Center and he was dearly loved. I'm so thankful for those people when we went to get him the celebration and send-off they gave him was overwhelming, just over the top.

Speaker 2: 2:06

When I asked if every adoption had this kind of party, this is what I heard what other adoption? The JFK Center has been here for 47 years and this is the first adoption we have ever had. What a tragic response. Friends, there are an estimated 150 million orphans in the world, and that doesn't even include the homeless, street-dwelling and trafficked children that we have no idea of that number. If you don't feel led to adopt, friends, please help someone who does. When we discussed and prayed about adopting a special needs child, the answer was simple we have the resources and he needs a home. I couldn't give God a good explanation of why we would say no. After all, we are called in scripture to care for the orphans and we chose to adopt because God has adopted us graciously into his family. This is in no way an effort to shame those who don't or can't adopt, but it is part of my life story. Well, during the time he was born, china had the one child only, law. Since he was born with severe disabilities, after about a year of hospitalization, micah's biological parents abandoned him and returned to China proper to, we suspect, try to have another only child.

Speaker 2: 3:34

Micah has a brain malformation that keeps him with very limited mental abilities and an extremely low IQ of 52. That keeps him in the three or four year old state with minimal communication skills. He has a serious case of epilepsy, with all two common seizures, wears a boxer's headgear to try to prevent injury. By the way, he's very proud of his headgear Now that he is 19 years old. He is still under 100 pounds, although he eats more than the rest of the family combined and regularly clogs up the toilet with his massive bowel movements. Okay, was that inappropriate? Okay, strike that from the record. Micah doesn't do that. Just, I don't know why I said that. Oh, one other thing Micah has club feet. When we got him he was wheelchair-bound. Attempts to give him mobility ended with botched surgeries and no practical improvement After a rare procedure with a St Louis-based specialist and much physical therapy. Micah hasn't been in a wheelchair in years, although it isn't pretty. He walks everywhere he goes and is proud that he can. He actually resists assistance sometimes when he actually needs it. But he does have to wear special braces Massively expensive by the way but those braces have taught me a lesson In the first couple of years we had him on nights that I wasn't traveling for business.

Speaker 2: 5:05

Sometimes I would have the job of changing Micah's daytime Spider-Man braces to his nighttime Spider-Man braces. It was almost the last parental chore of a very long day. But one night, as we were going through the routine, I thought about this seemingly insignificant job. Was it a task or was it a treasure? For me, it was too often a laborious, thoughtless task. For Micah, on the other hand, I think it was a thanks-filled treasure Menial to me but meaningful to him. Mundane to me but meaningful to him. Mundane to me but ministry to him. And it dawned on me that I was missing something, something immeasurably rich. I was missing that.

Speaker 2: 5:48

Jesus said I was meeting him in the mundane, menial task. If I was paying attention, I was essentially ministering to him, if I was doing it in his name. If that's the case, this isn't work, it's worship. Micah's braces could be instruments of adoration and thanksgiving, not just for him but also my Savior. I prayed that I remembered this the following night when we again would go through the routine of changing from one Spider-Man to another, and that I might ponder the treasure that Jesus can be found in the latching and unlatching of braces. I'm Lyndon Wolfe. This is my audio memoir here for the memories. I pray that this somehow encouraged you or educated you and that you will embrace somehow being involved in the process of adopting so many orphans that need good homes. God bless.

Speaker 1: 6:52

Hello friends, If you appreciate the content and what it takes to create and deliver it, what it takes to create and deliver it, please consider a small contribution. Just go to buymeacoffeecom slash here for the memories. That's buymeacoffeecom slash here for the memories Much appreciated.