Dreaming

I spent the weekend on the sidelines of a soccer field in beautiful 70 degree Maryland spring weather.  I watched a lithe 13 year old athletic girl sprint, kick, laugh, play, enjoy life.  I chatted with other adoptive mothers about the lives of our children and how differently they could have turned out.  Our three pairs of eyes filled with tears as we talked about the month one spent in Columbia to bring home her 11 year old son.  He has been with his forever family for 9 months and is a straight-A student (just learned English 9 months ago--woah!).  And we commiserated together as another shared her adopted from Russia daughter's painful growth plate injury and how it kept her away from soccer in the fall and how she is feeling so much better now.

I sat in the sunshine and remembered the adoption travel conference call that I listened to earlier this week.  Our amazing adoption agency's founder, Josh with CCAI, reminded us that without action these waiting children (like our Levi) would live out their lives in an orphanage, with no treatment, no education, no real hope.  His cleft palate would likely remain untreated and he would be the equivalent of an "untouchable" in China.

So that's why I weep sometimes at my kids' birthday party celebrations.  It's the idea of what could have been and what isn't, not because of us but because God moved something in our hearts and gave us children in a way we would never have imagined.

Adoption is a gracious gift that extends in both directions...into their lives and hearts and into ours.  But I submit that the greatest blessing is this mama's life, sitting on a comfy couch surrounded by two beautiful black-haired, brown-eyed Asian beauties; and dreaming of the rambunctious, rowdy Asian boy that is coming our way.  xxxooo