Going backwards a little bit and also repeating some information in a previous blog, when we came home with Chloe, all I could do was think of her friends left behind. When you adopt and you get to visit the orphanage it changes you. To me, I was not rescuing one child. I was leaving behind an orphanage full of children who were losing hope with each "friend" they saw leave, never to return. How do you reconcile that? Well thankfully I allowed God , after some time of fighting him to show me how. It all started with my pastor. On Palm Sunday after having Chloe home for 6 months and still fighting to join her friends with our family, I went forward in church to ask for prayer for these boys. My prayer request was to adopt these boys, Noah and Rhys. After all, ever since I had gotten home every Christian radio station I listened to was preaching on Noah! This must be a sign that he and Rhys were suppose to be part of our family. I will never ever forget the pastor's response to my request. As we held hands and he prayed for me, He asked God if it was His will for these boys to be adopted that it be so. I was livid!!!! God tells us He will place the lonely in families. God fights for the orphans!!!! I could not believe the words coming out of this tall strong Texan's mouth. Had he not studied his Bible? Little did I know! In the days to come, a non-profit in the orphanage started a tutoring program for our two boys and the 5 other children stuck in the same situation as them. They, at the moment, do not have a hope of being adopted but they do now have tutors and loving people coming into the orphanage to mentor them. The old is not thrown out, it is rejoiced in. And what of the new?
I believe if we had been successful in bringing home these boys, less children would be reached through me by the grace of God. Because God said, "No", I was open to other ways that I could help children from the birth country of my two precious daughters. This search took many twists and turns that led to the opportunity of leading two teams to China, training under Dr. David Cross and Dr. Karyn Purvis, meeting Dr. Bruce Perry and talking to him of traumatized children one on one, and in the next couple of months I will return to Ft. Worth, Texas, to receive training in how to hold camps for adopted children and their parents as well as conducting camps in orphanages for the children and their care providers. A camp for children with histories of abuse or abandonment that has caused them to isolate themselves due to failed trust. These children often remained closed and alone while their parents and care givers watch helplessly.
God has truly been merciful to me. As I wait to see what God has next, I am thrilled at the opportunity to parent our newest son who will be 10 years old when he joins our family hopefully by the end of summer 2014. We will continue to celebrate in the new and as we support and cherish the past. I look forward to sharing how God continues to work in our lives and will give Him the glory for everything we have and do not have. I am what I am because He has been there in the old and in the new for me. Shaping me and forming me into what He needs to accomplish the goals He set for me before I was ever formed in my mother's womb. I am a child of His and I am thankful for all the children He has chosen for me to come in contact with. I ask for your prayers as we navigate the new and uncertain as we also continue to celebrate the old that continues to unfold from the pasts of our children's lives. The stories they have shared and will share as we journey together this side of heaven.