Every Child Deserves A Family

This has been a fun time of the year with Thanksgiving then Kylie's birthday, now on to planning Karsten's birthday, then celebrating the birth of our Savior Jesus.  It is also a bittersweet time of year as we miss Kyler, but rejoice in the fact that he doesn't have to endure this sinful world and that he is forever at his home that he was made for.  This is a difficult time for so many people.

 I also think about orphans who are alone this Christmas and all they long for is a family.  The other night my family and I were watching the movie Santa Paws.  In the movie are foster girls in which some are adoptable.  In one of the scenes one of the girls was sent to the basement in the dark to be alone.  With Kylie on my lap she asks me tearfully, "Why is that girl all alone?  I don't ever want to be alone again!"  My daughter was sobbing.   She was remembering her past.  We forget.  We feel like she's always been with us.  At the end of the movie, two of the girls get adopted.  Kylie looks at me with tears welling up in her eyes and says, "So they have a family now?  They're not alone anymore?"  By then I was in tears and we both cried as I held and loved on my sweet girl.

I am so glad God didn't leave me alone either.   He didn't leave me as an orphan.  He delivered and rescued me all through His Son Jesus.  I am amazed how God puts families together.  It's not by blood how we are related (after all, you and your spouse aren't genetically related), rather it's through God and God is love.  I love all my children.  I am blessed to be called their mom.

Continuing to be Amazed

Lord willing, our beautiful daughter, Kylie, will be turning 6 in a couple weeks.  That is so hard to believe!  I am pretty sure we are getting close to her asking more questions.  Last night during dinner, our family was discussing China and her orphanage.  Kylie looked at us pitifully and asked, "Where were y'all when I was in the orphanage?"  That hit me hard.  I couldn't get the words out, but Brad told her we were here.  We were able to share with her how we along with so many people were praying for her.  She told us, "I was waiting for y'all to come get me."  I know we got Kylie in God's perfect timing, but I so wish we could have had her sooner.  I remember waiting so many years for her, praying, waiting, praying, waiting.  Kylie understands that she was adopted, but I don't think she yet grasps that she has another family on the other side of the world.  We are praying that God would give us the words to say to her when that time comes.  There are times when I cry while praying for her birth parents.  I wonder if her birth mom hid while looking when Kylie was found by the police.  The Chinese government is cruel in the fact that you can't have more than one girl without an expensive fine, plus it's against the law to abandon your children.  However, just like the story of Joseph in Genesis, what they meant for evil, God meant for good.  God made a way for us to have Kylie as our own daughter through the way the laws are in China.  God does not make mistakes.  I am so grateful for Kylie's birth mom for choosing life for her daughter, and I believe she tried to take care of her but it was hard feeding her with her cleft lip and palate.

I have so much to be thankful for.  I thank God for saving me from His wrath through Jesus Christ.  I am thankful for a wonderful husband who continues to love Jesus more each day, for my children: Karsten and Kylie who I am so thankful I get to raise, and for my 2 in heaven, Kyler, and little baby.  I know my life is not my own and everything God does is perfect.  God has a story for each of us.  He desires for us to know Him and He wants to know us.  I continue to be amazed at the One who died for me and is alive so I can live.