I cannot believe it is mid-September already! The school year is in full swing and the boys are all loving it (well, for the most part. mybe not so much the homework!). We have all 3 playing soccer which is fun but makes for long Saturdays. It will be a busy year---scouts, room parenting, soccer, school, the ministry....but that is the season God has me in now---the busy season of life. I love the busy Saturdays followed by Sunday to rest, and play. My boys had their giggle boxes turned on tonight....their laughter truly is one of the best sounds God ever made!!!
Our group that went on the Hohhot trip met earlier this month. We had a nice dinner at PF Changs (can you believe they do not offer CABBAGE? I would not have survived in China without all the cabbage!). It was wonderful to see everyone, and get caught up on the happenings in each other's lives. I asked if anyone had gone one day without thinking about the kids, or the trip. Most of us said NO.
I certainly have not. I have watched several adoptions from China (via blogs) recently and could see how the child's eyes changed over the course of the trip. You can learn a lot about a person by watching their eyes, their "window to the soul." These children who are adopted are being given a second chance---at life, at a family, at love. I found a new quote this week from a Yiddish proverb "Everyone is kneaded out of the same dough, but not baked in the same oven." The orphans, the many children in foster care---they came from the same dough that I did, but somewhere along the way, something got messed up, and most of the time, it had NOTHING to do with them! So, the child gets "discarded" as a bad bread...tossed in the trash, sometimes forgotten. They may go to an orphanage, or bounce from home to home in the foster system, all because of nothing they did. They are labeled the least of these, the "no help" ones, the forgotten ones. YET, they came from the same dough we did. They need a new oven, a gentle baker, to love them and give them life and hope. Not all of us are meant to be "bakers" ie to adopt or be foster parents. We are all called to help as we can. This is one of the rules William and I teach the boys, "Help when you can." How can I teach it unless I follow it as well? Helping others....just think if we all did this. The world would be a much better place to live.
I think of the kids I met in China everyday. They changed me from my perspective on life to the way I raise my children. Think about walking in their shoes for a minute. Maybe you lived with your parents until you were 4 or 5---having love, food, a family life. THEN, something happened and suddenly you were dropped off at a new place--with minimal attention, minimal food, no family, the same thing everyday. Even if your parents cried daily for you and missed you terribly, you have no way of knowing this and will likely never see them again. What would I be like? How would I respond, and would I ever trust again? But, you see these children who are given that second chance at love either by adoption, or by a foster home, or by a gentle nanny who takes that extra minute with them, and you see their eyes begin to light up again. The love slowly starts to show through, the trust starts to rebuild. To an outsider, you can see that their eyes were so hungry, so in need, so desirous of love. Once a helping hand is extended, the kids reach out and grab it (usually...I cannot write about the times it is not or I will end up crying and never finish the post!). There are orphans and foster kids around the world and in your backyard starving for love tonight...kids from the same dough as you, but just had a no good oven. How can YOU help them? It is a hard question we all should ask ourselves, and we should ALL have an answer.
Love,
Eve
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