Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Holidays 2008

The holiday season is here - and while I celebrate the joy of the season, my heart aches for the children who should be here but who are not. For Tanner and Brooklyn who are celebrating with the One we honor and for my daughter who is half a world away. Tanner and Brookie know how much their family loves and misses them. But my daughter (as Tanner always said "my Chinese cousin") doesn't know yet that there is a huge loving family waiting for her. Lord, please let her know this time next year how much not only her mother, but her grandmother, her aunts, uncles, cousins and those other "aunties and uncles" who can't wait for her arrival love her.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

O God of All Children

O God of all the children of Somalia, Sarajevo,
South Africa and South Carolina
Of Albania, Alabama, Bosnia, and Boston,
Of Cracow and Cairo, Chicago and Croatia,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of Black and Brown and White and Albino children
and those all mixed together,
Of children who are rich and poor and in between,
Of children who speak English and Spanish and Russian and Hmong
and languages our ears cannot discern,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of the child prodigy and the child prostitute,
of the child of rapture and the child of rape,
Of runaway or thrown -away children who struggle
every day without parent or place or friend or future,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of children who can walk and talk and hear
and see and sing and dance and jump and
play and of children who wish they could but can't,
Of children who are loved and unloved, wanted and unwanted,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of beggar, beaten, abused, neglected,
homeless, AIDS, drug, and hunger-ravaged children,
Of children who are emotionally and physically and mentally fragile,
and of children who rebel and ridicule, torment and taunt,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

O God of children of destiny and of despair, of war
and of peace,
Of disfigured, diseased, and dying children,
Of children without hope and of children with hope
to spare and to share,
Help us to love and respect and protect them all.

from
GUIDE MY FEET
Prayers and Meditations on
Loving and Working for Children
by Marian Wright Edelman

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

1001 Days since LID

It's now been 1001 days since the Chinese government recognized that they had recieved my paperwork for an adoption. And that's not counting the 9 months of waiting for a single's slot and doing paperwork that preceeded my log in date. And because referrals are still so slow in coming, it will likely be several more months before I get my referral. That's a really long time to wait.

I babysat last night for my friend's 3 year old daughter and son who were both born in China. Why does it make the wait harder? Seems like it should make me more sure the wait is worth it. I struggle to remember and believe that His timing is perfect....