Hey Friends!
Last blog I started to tell you a bit about our first trip
to meet Ellie Claire, and so, I’ll pick up where I left off.
We left the airport and headed to the West Sands Transition
Home where Ellie currently lives, and where we would be staying. We drove past familiar sights and finally
reached the front gate of the home. My
stomach twisted and my heart beat a million miles a minute as we pulled
up. The last time I was here, I was
kissing Addie good-bye, promising her that I would be back for her. I knew that beyond that gate was also where
my Ellie was waiting for me.
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| West Sands Transition Home and Guest House |
Once inside, we met a few other wonderful adoptive families
and waited eagerly for the nannies to bring us Ellie. We didn’t have to wait long- about thirty
minutes after our arrival the moment came.
I really cannot begin to describe to you how it feels to watch as
someone walks up the sidewalk carrying the child whose face you’ve been
dreaming of for months. I get choked up
just thinking about holding her for the first time, kissing her face, and
telling her, “I’m Mama.”
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| First meeting! |
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She was wide-eyed and curious, a little unsure of what to
think. The babies at the transition home
pretty much never leave their tiny, dimly lit dorm rooms, so in a few moments’
time she was being carried outside in the bright sunshine, and then into
another new, unfamiliar room with these pale people who spoke bizarre sounds
and whose eyes were leaking. J
She was quick to adjust, though, and was happy and giggly with us within the
hour. We were able to feed her a bottle,
and she even christened her daddy’s shirt and pants.
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| She has great aim! |
Each day, we were able to spend several hours with her,
playing with her- pretty sure she’d never even seen a rattle-, feeding her,
rocking her, singing to her, and cuddling her while she napped. We were once again head over heals in love,
and in awe that the Lord would bless us with the honor of being this beautiful
child’s parents.
One of the highlights of our trip was the day we got to go
to Adama (also known as Nazaret), the city where Ellie was born. We must never forget that although adoption
is an absolutely beautiful gift, it begins with tragedy. I am not going to divulge much about the
beginning of Ellie’s life here, because this is a public blog, and I feel it is
her story to share. Like any orphan,
though, her story starts with loss. I am
forever grateful to her birth mother for giving her life, and I am just
completely heartbroken for her that she will never know her sweet
daughter. There’s no way around the fact
that our young Ellie has experienced tragedy and grief beyond what we can
imagine.
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| Street view in Nazaret, Ellie's home town |
While in Nazaret, we had the privilege of going to the
orphanage where Ellie lived for a few months, and we met the amazing woman who
runs it. We also met with the police officer
who found and rescued Ellie. The officer
told us and the other families there that adoptive parents are “kings and
queens,” and I said this then, I’ll say it now- looking into the eyes of
orphans, you don’t feel like much of a queen.
We were able to spend just a short time with the children
there at the orphanage, but in that short time, our hearts were shattered. It was rest time and so they were in
their beds. We brought them chocolate
candy bars, and they each graciously accepted. To hug and kiss these children and look into
their eyes and tell them Jesus loves them, but then to have to walk away,
leaving them in an orphanage felt like the last thing a queen would do. While we sit in our nice, cool houses with our
cute little families, kids are going to bed each night without stories, kisses,
prayers, and songs. They wake up each
morning to a world without hope. We have
to do more. We just have to. I have
no idea of what exactly “more” looks like to you or me, but I know what it
doesn’t look like- turning our heads and pretending not to notice that people
are hurting deeply in this world. It does not look like sitting in our churches arguing over whether or not the bi-laws were followed to a T while kids go hungry. It doesn't mean sitting in committee meetings acting like we're all holy and important while kids die every hour from a stomach bug. Jesus
did far more for us than we ever deserved when He simply left heaven and came
down to earth to be among us. These
beautiful children need to know He came for them too. I can only imagine that it is very difficult
to completely understand the love of a holy, perfect Father when you have never
even known an earthly father or mother. There are kids in Ethiopia and right here in my own city that have no idea how a parent is supposed to love and care for his children because they've never experienced anyone caring for them, let alone a mom or dad.
God cares about kids. His Word tells us so. We sing "Jesus loves the little children..." and think happily, "Aw, isn't that nice." But do we get that his love for children isn't just a precious, sweet little love? His love is intense and it's real. It's so big and serious that He tells us we best be loving children, too. It's a mandate, a requirement- not a suggestion. His love should compel us to to action for the kids in this world. And I'm not just speaking to you- there are far too many times I choose to sit on my bum doing nothing,.... Okay, sermon over- at least for now...
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| These are the dorms where the kiddos live at the transition home. |
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| This is the courtyard area at the transition home. So many happy memories there! |
While we were at the transition home, one of our favorite
things to do was to hang out with the children living there. We sang songs, blew bubbles, played soccer
and basketball (okay, Billy played soccer and basketball…). These kids absolutely stole my heart, and it
was so much fun to spend time with them.
Several of them could not wait to show us pictures of their families
that they were waiting on to come back and get them. One particular sweet boy, we’ll call “S” told
us, “No family.” As I looked into his
eyes and saw the despair and sadness, it was all I could do to keep from
telling him, "No worries, you’ll just come home with me.” (By the way, that is highly frowned upon, so
I did NOT say that to this child J
) A day or two after we got home, I
pulled up Facebook to see a new blog post written by another adoptive mom. I followed the link to her blog and began
weeping. She and her husband had accepted
the referral of sweet “S.” I yelled to
Billy through the house, “’S’ has a family!!!! ‘S’ has a family!!!” Thank you, Jesus, “S” has a family. I am so grateful that this awesome couple
(who by the way, lives in the same county as us- how crazy is that?!) has
chosen him. They have listened carefully
to the Lord’s call upon their lives, and “S” has a family. Just awesome.
Another child that just made me a complete mess was a sweet
young girl named Mihret. (“Mihret” was
Addie’s Ethiopian name.) When we met her,
I had to walk away because of the tears, and Billy just sat there with her
wrapped up in his arms. She probably
initially thought we were a couple of crazy Americans, but by the end of the day, she was our precious little friend.
There were countless others whose names and faces I will
never forget. However, as much as I loved
playing, singing, dancing, and just hanging out with them, I loved seeing them
interact with Billy even more. These
kids are constantly surrounded and cared for by women there, so they ate up his
attention. To see fatherless children
held and loved by a godly man is a powerful image. I love this picture of him with our Ellie- safe, secure, and content in his arms-
It is very possible that Ellie had never been held by
another man, other than Woudneh, the Ethiopia program director for West
Sands. The strong, protective arms of a
father are incomparable. I am so
thankful that my husband has lead us through this journey and that he was and
is determined to see it through to completion, even on days when his wife
is a crazy woman (all who have been through an adoption know the crazy I’m
talking about.) Ellie has been blessed
with a daddy that loves her beyond belief- a daddy that loves Jesus even more,
and who will make sure that she is raised in the truth of His love. I’m so very grateful.
Once Ellie was in bed at night,
the children were up for a bit longer, and so we would go find them. Each day we would go to them, armed with
stickers or candy. You would have
thought we were handing out gold. J Here is my official apology to West Sands for
giving them stickers, which ended up on their walls. I have to say, though, it was pretty cool
walking into some of their rooms the next day to see where they had spelled out
“Jesus loves me” with the stickers. The
faith of these children is amazing and humbling. This was one of their favorite songs-
“Hallelujah,
Holy
Holy,
God
almighty,
The Great
I am.
Who
is worthy,
None
beside Thee,
God
Almighty,
The Great
I Am”
Hearing an orphan sing those words pretty much sends you
to your knees. Talk about praising God
and giving thanks in all circumstances… Wow.
Think we could learn a thing or two from these little ones.
It was a great trip, and it just kept getting better… more
to come!
