A Masterpiece

I like love to look back and remember stuff. Time moves so quickly that I'm afraid I'll miss things in the middle of it all.

We've been home 5 months and I can hardly believe it has only been that long.
We've been home 5 months and I can hardly believe it's been that long.
A lot has happened in 5 months.
Our baby who used to be rather bluish has 99% oxygen saturation. When we met her we were happy content if it was in the 70's. Now she's healthy, pink, and full of energy.

Two years ago Robert and I  sat at a Steven Curtis Chapman concert listening to him share about his own adoption stories. An ordinary family shared their story of adoption mid-concert, telling of the great need for families with love to give to adopt an orphan. With tear stained faces we left knowing that God had been preparing our hearts to say "I will" to a child who needed a family. 

I will do the work.

I will pay the fees.

I will push the papers.

I will suffer disappointing delays.

I will educate myself on how to be the best adoptive parent I can be.

I will work my rear off to save money.

I will put everything else on the back burner for a season for a child I haven't met, but somehow love.

I will risk so many many things, believe that God birthed this idea in our souls, and is going to weave something beautiful out of our saying "I will". 

We went home after that concert and told our (then) two kids. Our daughter celebrated. 

Our son did not. He very simply and quietly said:

"I like our family the way it is. I don't want a new person."

We agreed to pray. We agreed to talk. We agreed to consider. We agreed to wait.

I've told this story before. It's one of my favorites because I believe the miracle of adoption doesn't lie in where the money came from...and money is something that holds a lot of people back. It almost held us back.

I believe the miracle of adoption begins in how God changes hearts who are born selfish to have moments of selflessness.

God changes hearts who ask "What if I don't have enough_________?" (love, time, money, patience, space) to say: "I have enough for one more."

It's one thing when God changes your heart. That's a miracle and it's absolutely to be celebrated and remembered.

It's another thing for a mother to see her child grow from a boy to a young man; from a little brother to a big brother, and do so in such a way that I cannot imagine him not being a big brother. He was born to be her big brother. All he needed was a little sister, and for that to happen he needed a change of heart.

And so it did. 

Grace isn't the only one who's experienced a change of heart. We all have. It began that night 2 years ago; and one by one the Creator of our hearts did a work in each one of us, a masterpiece. 

I'm certain He's not nearly finished.

What about your heart? What masterpiece is in progress there...