My two favorite boys and one of their favorite places-in our backyard in the creek surrounded by water, mud, and critters. What a beautiful sight!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Favorites
My two favorite boys and one of their favorite places-in our backyard in the creek surrounded by water, mud, and critters. What a beautiful sight!
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Will I know she is mine?
The boys and I got to spend the morning on Friday with a sweet friend and her new daughter from Ethiopia. Stacie and her husband returned about three weeks ago with Mercy, and she's (Mercy) been adjusting really well to all the changes in her life. I asked Stacie to tell me all about her first moments with Mercy and her time in Africa.
Stacie is a tender-hearted, spirited friend so it didn't surprise me when she teared up as she recalled meeting her daughter for the first time. Stacie said she knew Mercy was their daughter and it was like Mercy knew they were her parents. How can that be? How can a baby who has probably never even seen a person with light skin immediately feel so comfortable with these people? How does a mom look at a baby and know this is her child when the child has been living on the other side of the world and in circumstances so different from the mother's life?
These are the questions I think about as I wait for our referral.
I know Stacie pretty well. She and her sweet roommate at the time, Hope, lived across the hall from me and Tim when he was in graduate school. I can trust Stacie and when she told me about her time in Africa, I knew she was sharing about how God worked. Stacie's experience can only be explained through the power of God's almighty hand. God was preparing Mercy's heart to receive her new parents as He was growing a love in Stacie's heart for her new daughter.
I pray for the same kind of instant connection. Realistically, I know not all initial encounters between an adoptive parent and the child are like that. Yet, I know God can do things that cannot be explained, and I am trusting Him to grow our love for our daughter and her trust in us. I try not to imagine the initial meeting we will have with our daughter because I don't want to place too many expectations on it. But it's hard not to think about it. So, during this waiting time, I'm placing my faith in God to work it all out in His timing. I'm going to trust Him that when I meet my daughter, my heart will know she's who He picked for our family. If I don't sense it, I'm going to trust in God's timing and His ways to reveal it to me over time. Proverbs 16:33 says The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. My confidence is in the truth that God is in control.
I am so thankful that God put Stacie back into my life after a few years of not being in contact with each other. I am hopeful that our daughters can be good friends and that we can support each other in raising them to be godly women.
Stacie is a tender-hearted, spirited friend so it didn't surprise me when she teared up as she recalled meeting her daughter for the first time. Stacie said she knew Mercy was their daughter and it was like Mercy knew they were her parents. How can that be? How can a baby who has probably never even seen a person with light skin immediately feel so comfortable with these people? How does a mom look at a baby and know this is her child when the child has been living on the other side of the world and in circumstances so different from the mother's life?
These are the questions I think about as I wait for our referral.
I know Stacie pretty well. She and her sweet roommate at the time, Hope, lived across the hall from me and Tim when he was in graduate school. I can trust Stacie and when she told me about her time in Africa, I knew she was sharing about how God worked. Stacie's experience can only be explained through the power of God's almighty hand. God was preparing Mercy's heart to receive her new parents as He was growing a love in Stacie's heart for her new daughter.
I pray for the same kind of instant connection. Realistically, I know not all initial encounters between an adoptive parent and the child are like that. Yet, I know God can do things that cannot be explained, and I am trusting Him to grow our love for our daughter and her trust in us. I try not to imagine the initial meeting we will have with our daughter because I don't want to place too many expectations on it. But it's hard not to think about it. So, during this waiting time, I'm placing my faith in God to work it all out in His timing. I'm going to trust Him that when I meet my daughter, my heart will know she's who He picked for our family. If I don't sense it, I'm going to trust in God's timing and His ways to reveal it to me over time. Proverbs 16:33 says The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord. My confidence is in the truth that God is in control.
I am so thankful that God put Stacie back into my life after a few years of not being in contact with each other. I am hopeful that our daughters can be good friends and that we can support each other in raising them to be godly women.
Monday, April 05, 2010
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