Toys, Toys, Toys!

We are running short on time… trying to get everything done before our trip. We don’t just have to get ready for it (and get ready to meet our little son!), we have to make sure plants are watered, mail stopped, and bills paid.

Who knew leaving for a week could be so stressful? We are using our vacation time to go visit our little one… vacations are supposed to be relaxing!

One of the fun things of getting ready has been toy shopping! Toys to occupy his hands while his heart gets to know us as MOM and DAD!

Toys that roll, toys that hum, toys that make noise! 

 

Toys that meet him where he is at developmentally, that will tickle his fancy – we hope.

What little boy doesn’t love cars? We know our little boy loves to go for rides! What little boy does not love to make noise? Or play ball?

Toys that flash and spin bright lights, that play tunes when you pinch their noses, books to read, balls to toss, and teddy bears to snuggle!

Not all at once though… we will give him the toys a couple at time over the course of a week. So we will play. And as we play, we will get to know each other. We will bond. We will pray blessings. As we love on him.

Don’t look for a blog next week… we have some serious playing to do!

Impossible

Ian and I have been busy… at work, at church, at home. We even seem busy in our sleep. What with the end of the fiscal year, a new season of teaching bible study and Sunday school, not to mention planning all the details of our first visit to meet our new little son, we are definitely burning the candle at both ends – perhaps in the center too, just for good measure.

But in the middle of the busy, busy, busy, I stop. I stop and find peace. I stop and give thanks. I stop and linger in the embrace of the One who makes the impossible possible.

The impossible…

Yes, I am talking about our adoption… and so much more.

I am talking about how He transformed a sad, silent little girl into vibrant and powerful woman (me!).

How He takes broken bodies and minds that are beyond a doctor’s help and makes them brand new (also me!)

How He loved the world so much, that He gave His own Son to death that we could have life.

Impossible love.

God defines love differently than we do.  Our definition of love is a deep feeling of devotion and adoration. And yes, that is awesome… but not impossible. Even evil people can love that way.

But impossible love is on a much bigger scale. It is more than a feeling – it’s an action plan that started before all time began. It involved thousands upon thousands of years to work it out, billions of people, and the most crushing loss ever – the death of the invincible on behalf of the fallible.

The goal? Simply to give me the most awesome existence ever– to make me the most Melanie-est Melanie ever in the best way possible. Take that goal and multiply it by billons. To somehow give everyone who has ever lived exactly what they need to be the most joyful, most awesome, most incredible version of themselves ever. 

“Impossible”, you say. “You can’t please all the people all the time.”

Someone did. God figured out a way to do it. There was only one way to do this and He found it. A way wherein everyone gets to win and everyone gets the prize.

“I don’t know”, you say, “I definitely don’t have the most wonderful existence ever. I am hot and bothered, I suffer and everything really is horrible. And I know I am not the only one… it seems this plan is failing.”

This plan is not done yet. We are not done yet. We don’t get to see the final end anymore than cake batter gets to see the wedding cake it becomes. Right now we are oozy, unformed versions of ourselves. But God is working out His plan in us – in our neighbors, in the guy on the street corner, in that obnoxious co-worker.  We are not done yet. We need a little heat, a little discomfort and maybe even searing pain to form us into that miraculous wedding cake version of ourselves. It’s yucky. It feels unfair. But in the end we will have our cake and eat it too.

We don’t know what is best for us… we try, we fail, and sometimes we succeed, but even our success is only a shadow of the success He has planned for us. We see glimpses of what is to come, but we don’t see it fully. Yes, it is a matter of belief and trust, but I have seen enough glimpses to know that the reality which is to come is good beyond my wildest of dreams. At the end of the plan, when it all comes together, we are left with impossible perfection.

This is what love means to Him. At all costs, even the highest cost, he arranged for each of us to have a happy ending – the best happy ending possible… which will turn out to be just the beginning of eternity.

My life has been hard. Ian’s life has been hard. My little son across the ocean, who has barely experienced any of his life – his life has been hard.

When life is impossibly busy, when life is impossibly hard… when I am going crazy with sorrow… crazy with fear… I stop and find peace. I stop and give thanks. I stop and linger in the embrace of the One who makes the impossible possible through His impossible love.

God Places the Lonely in Families

One of my favorite sayings is “God places the lonely in families.”


 

When I first heard this one, I was a little offended… Well, more like offended a lot! I thought, “Who said I was lonely! Who said I needed a family! I like being by myself just fine. I don’t need anyone! I have a family anyway… who lives thousands of miles away, but they are there! And I have friends… who also live thousands of miles away… and… wait a moment… I guess I am lonely – especially in this time zone. Waiting for the West Coast to wake up is a long, lonely time. Long distance hugs are rather lonely too. Sigh, I guess I do need God to place me in a family out here in the wilds of Washington DC.”

Here be dragons!



So I asked Him for a family… and boy, did He answer! I have the most awesome family ever here in DC (to complement my West Coast family). I have friends, true bosom buddies, kindred spirits, Jonathans to my David and Davids to my Jonathan! If I was ever being attacked in a dark alley, these are the people who I’d want to have my back. And they would!

But I was also lonely in another way too…

People often quote this “God places the lonely in families” in reference to orphans being adopted… How God scoops them up and puts them into the loving arms of a new mom and dad – sometimes with new brothers and/or sisters! And it is true – He does find just the right fit for these little ones who have lost so much. They are lonely no more!

But the other side of the coin is just as true – it’s not just the child that gets placed in a family – it’s the lonely mom and dad yearning for a little one. God places the parents in this family just as much as the child….

We were lonely for a little son… our arms – and hearts were empty. No pitter-patter of little feet. No cuddles and tucking in at bedtime. It is a horrible loneliness that breaks your heart and shatters your soul.

But now, in a matter of weeks, we will visit the little one that God has placed us with – he is our family and God’s cure to our specific brand of loneliness. No, it will not be an easy or instantaneous family – it will be a labor of love. He will need to get to know and become attached to us and we will need to get to know and become attached to him. There will be times of craziness and times of figuring everything out… probably for the foreseeable future. And we know the pitter-patter of little feet will occur at 2:00 a.m. and then be followed by cuddles and tucking in for the nth time that night, and we will be dead tired, probably cranky as all get out, and incapable of putting a coherent sentence together the next morning – but it will be family. It will be family at last.

So frequently we hear, “He is so lucky to be adopted by you!”

Little do they know, we are the “lucky” ones… we are the recipients of this blessing, this healing miracle.

What joy! What absolute joy!