Susie Krauter loves to write music. And when God puts a song on her heart, she listens and responds. Not long ago, a family from her church in the Seattle area, who had already adopted one child from China, learned about a 10-year-old boy, living in a Chinese orphanage, who had a cleft palate. They ached to adopt him.

When Susie heard her friends’ story, she says she “asked the Lord for a song for this family.” One day, as she was sitting at her son’s soccer practice, words for a song started to flow from Susie’s pen. She scribbled the words as quickly as possible and completed everything but the final phrase.

Susie then prayed, “Lord, is there anything you would like me to take away or add to this song?” She says that the Lord gave her the final phrase to the song: “Tears of joy run down my face, I am waiting for the day...take me to my family.”

Over the next couple of days, Susie and her husband recorded the song, posted it on their Web site, and they sent the recording to the family who hoped to adopt the boy. Moved by the song, the adopting family began sharing it with others.

An organization called The Shepherd’s Crook Ministries requested to use the song during a fundraising banquet for their orphan ministry. The Shepherd’s Crook is a non-profit ministry, located in Ohio, that seeks to find homes for special-needs orphans by connecting interested families with the agencies or individuals who facilitate adoptions of the children.

Susie was thrilled by the request, saying, “This song belongs to God. I want Christian adoption agencies to have the song for free and to use the song to raise money for orphans.” Her dream is that a recording artist will professionally record and release the song and donate all the proceeds to benefit orphans waiting to be adopted.

Soon after she sent the song to The Shepherd’s Crook, Susie and her daughter entered the Washington State Christian Talent Contest sponsored by Worthy Music Ministries. The day they entered the contest, Susie received a package in the mail that made her cry. “It was a professional background version of my song, recorded by Jeff Smith for The Shepherd’s Crook benefit.”

Using the professionally-recorded background music, Susie and her daughter entered the contest and won first place in the “Songwriting: Other” category. That very day, the family Susie had written the song for was in China meeting their son.

In the next post, I’ll print the lyrics to Susie’s song, “Love Found Me.”
You can listen to Susie's song at her Web site, Tru North Music.