HE gives and HE takes away

This is a hard post.

But not.

Yesterday, we picked up our daughter.

I am trying not to cry.  Right now our girls are in their room having a tea party.  Again.  They have yet to be more than 6 inches from each other.  They crack up, they run together, play together, they stare at each other while eating and start laughing from joy.

Which kind of makes me want to cry.

Again.

At the airport, we met the other couple who was also waiting for their daughter, the same chaperon was bringing both of them.

It is their first adoption.  They asked me if the transition is easy as they have heard.

I asked them who on earth told them that??!!??!!

It is the hardest, funnest, scariest, what-was-I-thinking, greatest, I-cant-imagine-life-without-them, I must be7 kinds of crazy, I need to hug them right NOW, I am exhausted, let me kiss that face one more time, kind of  experience.

But easy???

Heck no.

Seriously, parenting is not easy.  An adjusting to a new personality, culture, routine, trying to bond and a general getting used to, and on top of that you can't even communicate??

I don' think easy is the word I would use.

Christian is trying to adjust to the adults.  Not that she is having a hard time, but adjusting to Elly was a piece of cake.

And she is terrified of the animals.  Specially the dogs.   I told John, maybe the dogs in the Congo are crazy, mean, street dogs, and she was told to run when she saw one or she would be attacked.

Well, she RUNS let me tell you.

Meanwhile, the beagles hardly move.  :P  Elly keeps trying to show her the dogs couldn't care less if you sat on them and put your hand in their mouth.  They MIGHT open an eye.  Maybe.

Another situation, she just takes off outside.  Runs to the street without thought.

Oh dear one, you are not in Africa anymore.

GOD is good.



Today is my brother-in-law's birthday.

He would have been 50.

He was a gift of GOD kind of man.  We hardly had anything in common, except Jesus.  In fact, he was the one who introduced us to HIM.

Because of Peter, our lives were able to be radically changed by the KING of KINGS,  and our focus and goals changed.

And that common factor made us close.

It has been 16 years since he passed away.  There is not a week, some times it is not a day, that I don't think of him.

He truly was the brother I did not have.

I miss him, still.

Not gonna lie, even after 16 years, there are times I still cry over him not being here.  Sometimes it is a song, a scripture, a word, a thought that reminds me.  Sometime it is looking at who my children have become, are.  My children remember him through my memories.  Even Samuel who has never met him knows him well.

My little girls will know him.  How can I not give them those memories?  How can I not introduce them to the brother of my heart, who walked me to the cross and gave me LIFE? How can they not love him, too??!!?

And if I really think about it, they, my little girls are here because of him.  Years ago, he was the one who first asked us to consider adopting from China.  Long before foreign adoptions became 'common'.

we never forgot.

Happy Birthday my dear Brother.  My desire... for HIS sake, for their own sakes, and for your sake, Peter, is to raise my children to HIS glory.  One day, my children will run into your arms in heaven, and they will thank you for who you were to HIM, to me, and in turn to them.

And they will...Because HE lives.

Peter, you had many heartaches, joys, victories, pain and sorrows, and yet this reminds me of something you told me once, and it never left me:

There were ten lepers healed, and only one turned back to give thanks, but it is to be noticed that our Lord did not recall the gift from the other nine because of their lack of gratitude. When we begin to lessen our acts of kindness and helpfulness because we think those who receive do not properly appreciate what is done for them, it is time to question our own motives.   ~ Leaves of GOD