Saturday, November 23, 2013

Really Home




Even after nearly a week, it is hard to believe we are really home.  Six weeks in EE, three weeks in the hospital, plus a few more days of travel added up to nine weeks and three days on the road.

Now that we've returned, two precious and innocent former orphans are "home" as well.  They have full bellies and warm beds.  They have the same caregivers day after day.  I'm sure that is still confusing at this point.  We saw so many different nannies at the orphanage that we lost count. Children adopted from these types of orphanages and institutions join families without having any concept of what a family actually is.  They can have a lot of behaviors and psychological issues as a result of never forming appropriate attachments to primary caregivers.

All orphans have experienced loss, no matter how young.  Each transition in their lives has meant another loss.  This article touches on the lasting effects of experiences stored in implicit memory:    
http://gobbelcounseling.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/trauma-doesnt-tell-time/

In country, we did not see or hear some of the things other adoptive families have testified about. We trusted the Lord to protect our oldest daughter that was with us, and He surely did.  But we saw enough.  And now, we see our two youngest children living with the consequences of being orphaned in EE every day.

We are praying for God to restore our little one's hearts and bodies as only He can. 

A couple of days ago, I read this, written by a sweet RR mama:

http://www.blessthislittlechild.blogspot.com/2013/11/is-there-hope.html

It is short and to the point.  Please take a moment to read it.  Not for me, but for two orphaned girls who desperately need families.  Two out of millions.  Millions is so overwhelming.  So many little souls.  What can we do??

Only pray.  The Lord will take care of the rest.

Those millions of orphaned children are not just numbers. They have faces.  And stories.  Please go look at these girls' faces.  They need disciples of Jesus whose hearts are burdened to pray for them.  

It's the least we can do.  As we enter into this holiday season and enjoy God's provision in our lives, let's give a gift that will only cost us our time.  Let's lift these two girls up in prayer, along with sweet Miranda whose face pierces my heart.


Oh, those eyes.  I've seen a more recent picture of her and it is heart wrenching.

Let's lift these girls' families up in prayer.  Somewhere, God is calling someone.  Let's pray for their hearts to trust Him.

We are home, but they are not.

A couple of weeks before we left for EE, I wrote this:
http://thewillofthefather.blogspot.com/2013/08/i-wasnt-always-like-this.html

I wasn't always like that, but I hope I always will be.

We had no idea as we prayed for the Lord to supernaturally sustain her, that Mimi's very life was hanging in the balance.  That she was one of the orphans left to suffer alone.  We have no doubt He sustained her.  She would never have made it otherwise.  She has lived in tremendous pain, enduring the effects of a bowel malformation that would have been corrected shortly after birth if she had been born in the US.  Into a family that wanted her.

Thank you again - though it will never be enough - for your support, your prayers, your generosity.

Though our two newest additions came a little later into their families, they are very much wanted, and desired, and loved.

Malachi 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LordAlmighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.