Dear Lord, please...

One of our children said "YES lets go!" when we discussed adopting 6 months ago. The other frowned and said, "I like our family the way it is. I don't want a new person".

Without revealing who (and some of you may already know), I will tell you that second reaction completely took me by surprise. Years prior, that same child previously had been in favor of adopting, even excited at the thought of a new sibling.

I mentioned earlier, that we weren't all on the same page until recently. It was a challenge to try and discover why our child felt that way, what the fears were, what had changed in their heart to take it from a "yes! lets go" to a "no - I don't wanna'".  S/he was willing to talk about their questions - but the challenging part was trying not to push our agenda down their throat or guilt them with thoughts of lonely orphaned children to force them into reluctant agreement. I knew that would be breeding ground for resentment.

I'm writing about this for two reasons.  I must document these sweet moments that I don't ever want to forget. The other is to share a true story of how God can change a heart. I believe that people can set out to do good deeds, speak kind words, and look really good while doing good things. Only God can change a heart. Only God can make beautiful things out of us.

So last night at bedtime we were praying and we have gotten into the habit of praying for Grace. Our child who was not wanting anyone else in our family, and liked things the way they were prayed these words...

"Dear Lord please help whoever Grace is or is going to be, to not be hurt in China until we get there."

Only God can create feelings of protectiveness toward a younger sibling that they've never met out of a heart whose nature is to be selfish.

Only God.