orphan sunday

Today is Orphan Sunday. We watched a video in church that was created to celebrate all the children who have come home to families in our church through adoption.

Some from Ethiopia.

South Korea.

Alabama.

And a few especially adorable ones from China that, when their faces flashed across the screen, might have made me tear up a little.

Especially their faces before they came home.

It’s not that they didn’t have a roof over their heads.

Or clothes on their backs.

Or food in their belly.

It’s that they didn’t have parents, a mama to snuggle and baba to wrestle.

They didn’t have a home, a place of safety in an unsafe world.

They didn’t have a love that said, “You are not alone in this scary world any more. You are mine.“

They didn’t have the joy, the love, the craziness and the security of a family.

But just look at them now. Seeing those shining faces makes my heart do flip flops.

The truth is that in this whole adoption thing it is me that’s the blessed one. And only the Lord can do something like that in a heart like mine. He has shown me that when I give, when I surrender to His plan over mine, He gives far more in return than I could ever imagine.

Just one little shining face is missing. One who has no idea someone is coming for her. But oh, are we coming for her.

And soon, sweet Clementine.