Welcome here, friend!
My name is Jade Waters, and I am the co-author of this blog! I say co-author, because this platform is truly a collection of writings that God has co-written with me to display my heart and our story together. I like to say to people, “If you want to know my heart, read my blog!” God has been faithful in His pursuit of my story and writing the narrative of it alongside me. I pray that the words on this blog encourage, comfort, and spur you on to share your own story with God - I know you’ve got a good one to share, and I also know you’ve got a good partner to proclaim it with!
About Me
If you’re here, I already consider you a friend! So, let me share a little bit about me and my life so we can get to know each other more!
Education
I recently graduated from the University of South Florida with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Deaf Studies. Due to the Cambridge and dual enrollment programs at my high school, I was able to complete my undergraduate program in just 2 years at USF. Ever since I can remember, I’ve always felt God calling me to become a mental health counselor, and as I’ve grown up, I’ve seen time and time again how this calling of mine and my perspective on it has grown up right alongside me. So, my choice of major was a no-brainer! My minor of Deaf Studies was added later on, during my second semester at USF; I had developed a love for learning American Sign Language, and my main goal for adding the minor was to become fluent in the language and to learn more about Deaf culture. I absolutely loved all of the opportunities that I had in college and the community of friends that God has crossed my path with. Now that I have completed my B.A., I plan to pursue graduate school and continue on the path to become a Christian mental health counselor!
Other than the academic side of school, I was also heavily involved as a student leader with the Navigators, one of the many wonderful on-campus ministries at USF. Through that ministry, I had the chance to meet so many wonderful friends and a cultivate a beautiful community of sisters-in-Christ to walk through this past chapter of my life with. If you ever happen to be on campus, be sure to reach out and join one of the NavNights or Bible studies! I was also involved with Delight primarily during my first year at USF, which is an all-women’s ministry for college-aged girls. While my growing commitment with the Navigators limited my capacity for involvement with other ministries, I am so grateful for the connections that I’ve found through the girls in Delight and for the fun memories I’ve made with the community there.
Family
A fun fact about me is that I have a big military family! I have three older brothers (God gives His hardest battles to His strongest soldiers, am I right? ;-) ), a dad who displays God’s love for me so accurately, and a mom who has a huge heart for generosity and hospitality! I am a BIG family girl - with being the youngest of 4, I’ve grown to have a deep appreciation and love for when members of my family are able to spend time together. All 3 of my brothers live in different states, so we often get that family time through traveling to see them! Oh, and by the way, I also have a pretty cute doggo named Poppy :-) she is a 5-year-old Morkie (Maltese and Yorkie mix) who loves food of any kind, endless play sessions of fetch, and chewing the ears off of her favorite toys ;-)
Adoption Story
A big part of this blog revolves around my process of grappling and coming to terms with my story of adoption. For those of you who don’t know, my story starts in Chongqing, China - at a time when the government still had their One-Child policy in place due to overpopulation in the country. Due to this rule, I was abandoned at birth, placed into an orphanage, and later adopted by my family at 10 months old. My case is what’s known as a “closed adoption”, which means that I have no information or connection to my biological family. Before my adoption, my name in China was Xue Han Qian - pretty different from what it is now, don’t you think? Something fun about my story is that my birthday is on May 28th, 2005, and my Gotcha day lands on March 28th, 2006; so, I really was adopted exactly 10 months from the day I was born! I credit this fact to God’s foreknowledge of my type-A personality that craves order and exact dates ;)
While this isn’t the case for every girl who’s been adopted from China, I’ve been incredibly blessed to grow up with a group of girls who all share the same story as me - I call them my China Sisters! Even though none of us are biologically related to each other, these 6 girls are practically my siblings (hence, the name of our group)! These girls and I were all adopted at the same time from the same orphanage, and our families all connected throughout different parts of our adoption process. Ever since we were little, our families have hosted yearly reunions to bring us back together; there were originally 6 other families in my group of China Sisters, and all of us would rotate with hosting each reunion in our home states! One tradition that we have is taking our annual “white dress photo”, where all of us girls dress up and get pictures as a group in our white dresses for the year. As we’ve gotten older, many of us have grown distant in communication, though I am still regularly in touch with two of my closest sisters to this day (and we still take our white dress photo when we see each other)! My China Sisters and I have made so many sweet memories from traveling to see each other and growing up together throughout the years. While I am not in touch with all of them anymore, they will always have a special place in my story.
That’s a wrap about me for now, friends! I hope you’ve enjoyed learning more about me and my life through this little corner of the blog. Thank you for taking the time to read my story! If you feel up for it, I’d love to hear about YOU now!