Joel has truly been covered in prayers.

Love Without Boundaries contacted me the other day to share an email they received regarding Joel:

Hi, my names Anna and I'm a college student studying in central Pa. I had the opportunity to spend a month in Beijing this summer and while I was there I spent some of my time doing volunteer work at New Hope Foundation. It was a wonderful experience and it definitely changed who I am as a person. Because I was spending so much time there, there were a few kids who I grew very attached to. There was one little boy in particular named Phan-Phan who I just absolutely fell in love with. The last day I was there emotionally difficult for me to say least. My heart absolutely went out to this child and I would most likely never see him again or know what his future held. He's been in my thoughts and prayers ever since, and my prayer has been that he is able to find a permanent family. 

My experiences in the orphanage led me to re-evaluate what I'm doing with my future. I recently changed my major to human development and family science( a major that would help me to work in places like international orphanages). I'm really interested in Chinese child welfare and chose to focus on it for a project. As I was researching, I came across your website. First off all great job, but secondly you guys absolutely made my day. 

I was mindlessly scrolling through the home page and about fell off my chair when i came across a picture of a kid who looked exactly like Phan-Phan (Nov 14th). I had never been told his " American" name, so the name Joel meant nothing to me. I couldn't believe it, I thought he must just be a kid who looked like him, especially since I that point I had no idea where in China the picture was taken. But lo and behold, after reading through it a million times, I was sure it was him. AND HE'S BEING ADOPTED! 

I'm going to be honest with you, I started sobbing in the middle of the computer lab. I'm so so so happy that he's going to have a family. I completely believe that it's a God thing that his picture happened to show up as a cover on a website I just happened to be scrolling though. It's such an answer to prayer to know what happened to him and to know that he's going to have a family that loves him. 

I know it's unlikely that you will have any contact with the adoptive family, but if you somehow do, I'd love to let them know that they have a wonderful, adorable little boy and that a twenty year old in Pa has been praying for them for the past few months. It really made my day to be able to know what happened to him.

lots of love,

Anna

I was so excited to contact her and tell her that Joel was getting a family and that we were blessed that God chose us.  I hope that she has pictures of her time in China with Joel and I can add them to this post very soon.

I want to share as many experiences as I can regarding Joel's story because he has touched peoples lives all over the world.  

Thank you to everyone that has covered Joel with prayers.