Beautiful Lessons

I've been reflecting, today. Thinking lots about our boy and asking that God keep his care in compassionate hands, until we get to him. 6 months ago, if you had told me I'd not only be adopting a child with Down Syndrome, but doing so joyfully, I'd have thought you CRAZY! But God...but, God steps in and turns our hearts where he will. He turns our heads, so that we see new truths and cannot look away. I have had a passion, all my life, for the littles. For the lonely, hungry, abandoned children who want to be loved more than they want their next breath. I have travelled the world (not much recently) to hold these children. Whether they were on the busy streets of London or the dirt roads of Africa, they have called to me. To love them, to play with them, to teach them that the God of Heaven made them each fearfully and wonderfully in his very image.

So, when I found myself at a website: http://www.reecesrainbow.com/ and I learned of the horrible realities that children with Down Syndrome and other "special" needs in EE faced, I could not look away. I could hear them calling to me, just like the littles before them. To love them, to play with them, to teach them that the God of Heaven made them fearfully and wonderfully in his image. I looked and saw beautiful, healthy children. Children who would be moved to an institution. A terrible place, where there are too few workers, too many children and not enough food. A place where children, beautiful, healthy children are tied to beds or left to sit for hours on a potty seat. Children who are playing with toys one day and the next find themselves on a car ride to a place with no toys. That car ride ends in a place that should not even exsist in our world, today. I could not look away. They are calling. Crying out for someone to see them, to tell their stories and to find their families. I will walk this path God has laid out before me, because if not me, then who?

Not only will I take this journey, but I'll do it JOYfully. Knowing that God has good in mind for me and for my family. He is leading us down a path that I am sure is going to teach us beautiful lessons about his grace and unconditional love. His love that takes what the world says is unworhty of love and turns it just the right way so that we catch a glimpse of him and heaven. If we look away now, we might miss the face of God. You've seen it. In a child's smile. You've heard it. In a child's laughter. You've felt it. In the sweet kiss of a precious little. I cannot look away, because I know that the reward is going to be worth the journey.

Hidden in Christ,
Mandy