He knows the names of the stars...

baby zhang. that is what we have called her. that is how we know her. just a couple of days ago i sent out a letter to hundreds of friends asking them to pray for baby zhang.   right this very moment, friends from around the world are praying for our baby zhang.  after all that talk about baby zhang, we found out it is not her name.  exactly.   i just received this email from our adoption liason, amy:

Jody…I realized the other day we are actually calling Zhang by her last name…I asked Lily about it today…here is her answer…pretty funny how “no” is no and that is it---no more info…kind of like trying to get info from the hospital…welcome to china ;-)…

(IM message)
Amy says:
quick question....
what would zhang's first name be?...I realized we have been calling he by her last...
Zhang, Xue Zhu this is how it is listed...
Lily Qiu says:
zhang is her family name
xue means snow
zhu means bamboo
Amy says:
which one is her first name
Lily Qiu says:
xue
Amy says:
how is it prounced...can you write it?
Lily Qiu says:
oh, my
i don't know how
Amy says:
does the x sound like J?
like Joo?
Lily Qiu says:
no
Ha…that’s it…so, I will continue to call her Zhang until Lord willing, she becomes Lily Grace J…

By the way…your letter is lovely…I actually sent to Andrea who called me in tears after reading—she said it was so beautiful…she so wants to be in your place of adopting and fears her husband will never come around..but she continues to pray…by the way, I didn’t know she shared a birthday with your daughter…really neat…


and so here we are with our little baby zhang, zu zu zhang, baby Z, baby bamboo-snow...we are pretty certain that we are not getting it exactly right (still)...but we know that as we pray, as our friends pray...that God is hearing it exactly right.
our God knows the number of grains of sand on the shore. he knows the number of stars in the sky. he knows them by name.  He knows the child we pray for...He knows her by name.

"He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of stars and calls them each by name." ~ psalm 147:3-4