“Without exception, adoption is guaranteed to rock your seemingly ordered world,” writes Jennifer Phillips in her new devotional book, “Hope When It’s Hard.”

The 30 moving devotionals revolve around the experiences of her and husband Brian’s adoption of a 15-month-old Chinese girl who had been orphaned. The couple, with their three children, was living in Australia where Brian served with University Impact, when they began the adoption process.

She writes with clarity and passion about “adopting a child from China while living in Australia through the American adoption system.” The ups and downs of that challenging process are captured in these devotionals.

They named their newest addition to the family, Lucy. Even though Lucy was 15 months old, Jennifer writes, “Her size and developmental age was that of a 4-month-old.” Three months after adopting Lucy, Jennifer heard her baby utter the word “Mama.”

Five years after adopting Lucy, the couple went on a vacation, without the children, to Australia. Within 24 hours of their arrival home, “all four kids and Brian had the flu. They dropped like flies, one by one, right before my eyes,” she wrote. “In a matter of hours, we went from complete serenity to germy chaos, and my flesh screamed, ‘I want to go back!’”

She shared that after a year of crying, Lucy finally was able to go into her Sunday school class without crying. Jennifer and Brian could now sit through the worship service and know Lucy was fine.

After a few weeks into that peaceful experience, Jennifer was called out of the service one Sunday morning and told that Lucy was crying hysterically. Lucy asked her mom why she was crying. Jennifer replied, “I don’t know. Why are you crying?” Lucy responded, “Because I wanted you.” She assured her daughter that she wanted her, too. Then Lucy said, “Mama always comes back, and I am safe.”

The book can be ordered through New Hope Publishers or Amazon.