Feeling Renewed

Thank God for some much needed rest! We're still adjusting to the time change. Much like my grandfather usually is, I was wide awake at 4am. Even though I adore sleeping in, I now understand why he is okay with being awake early. I was able to spend some quality time with God and some time soaking in a hot bath. I finished reading a book passed down from my grandmother titled "FEEDING MY LAMBS, The Joy Ranch Story" (copyright 1986). It's about a couple that founded a home for needy children, providing them with "love and care in a wholesome, structured environment." I remember my grandparents hosting children from Joy Ranch and wondering why these children didn't have grandparents of their own. Many of the children at Joy Ranch came from very hard places of abuse, neglect, and desertion. One notable section of the book reads:

A few paragraphs later the book quotes Psalm 27:10, "When my mother and my father forsake me, the Lord will take me up." In case you've forgotten, we are His hands and feet.
Many people have asked us "Why adoption?" especially after they learn we have a biological child of our own. But holding a child of our own only makes us want to care for other children even more. If I had died during childbirth, would I not want my child cared for? If my child had a medical need I could not meet, would I not want someone to meet that need? If I never made it off the airplane, would I not want my child to still grow up in a home with loving parents? These seem like ridiculous questions, but how can they be answered without someone on the other side saying yes to my child? That's where adoptive parents step in. We say yes to the parents that could not meet their child's needs. I believe God worked in our hearts to say yes to adoption so that Elijah's birth parents could be at peace with the decision to give him up for the surgery that he needs. I cannot fathom how difficult their decision was. Itt will always be easier to make the decision to add a child to your family than to give one away. But I know my God takes care of His children.

That wonderful book, written years ago by such s lovely couple, started with the verse Matthew 18:14. "Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that even one of these little ones should perish." Amen to that! That's what this whole journey has been about, caring for the little one.