Just when I was feeling a tad bit lonely in this adoption journey God filled my days with His love through some amazing people.
Yesterday I received a letter in the mail from a friend that I get to “do life with”. The page was filled with God’s word, a passage that has meant a lot to her through waiting & struggle and she shared it with me, along with her prayer for our family & our Burundi babes. I cried. Thanks AY!
I spent the morning on a walk with a cherished friend who always asks about the adoption…always. So she let me talk as we walked the beautiful greenbelt and I shared and it was good for my soul. Thank you KV!
I ate lunch & sat for 2 hours with a woman who has been in my life for a long time. She was first a mentor and now a dear friend (and still a mentor). She asked, listened, cared and encouraged and I left uplifted and thankful for the bond in Christ we have. Thanks HW.
I’ve made a new friend in this process. A woman in the same boat I am in. She too is adopting from Burundi. She too has 4 kids, lives in the NW & loves Jesus. She gets my aching heart because her heart is aching too. We check in on each other and encourage each other and I thank God for her friendship even though I have never seen her face to face…at least not yet. KE- we are in this together.
Multiple texts from girlfriends who are praying for us & a phone conversations with family & my soul sister.
Just when the day was coming to an end I took a little walk to get the mail (its like 25 steps to the mailbox, but whatever). There was a bright red package in the mail box (I LOVE RED)…a package from my new Texas friend (I ALSO LOVE TEXAS), who I’ve only spent one weekend with but we too are bonded in Christ and the realization that we have lived similar lives just in different parts of the US. So weird. When C.S. Lewis wrote that the essence of friendship is the exclamation “You, too?”…this describes us. Inside the package was a little elephant and a note.
“We pray for you and your family as you prepare to bring home your 2 children…
My friend went to Burundi on a missions trip and I asked her to bring something back for you.
She brought back this sweet little elephant. I remember that elephants are pregnant for 2 years but I’m praying that will not be the case for ya’all. (oh my gosh…isn’t it so cute how she says ya’all!) Trust in God’s timing. It is the best.”
Love, JB
First I teared up and then instinctively I pressed the elephant to my nose to smell it…Is that weird? It might be but I just wanted to know what Burundi smelled like! I cant say that it smells a certain way but I tried. 🙂 Isn’t this just the sweetest thing?!!! My very own piece of Burundi to hold onto until we get our kids. My heart is blessed! BLESSED! Thank you JB! I sure hope I get to see you again one day so that I can hug the Texas right out of you!
I write all of these things down because I want to forever remember God’s grace through his people. People who have remembered us in our waiting and in their prayers. Every act of kindness reminds us that God is for us. He loves us. He is fighting for us…for our children in Burundi.
One of the areas God has been growing me is in the realization that the body of Christ is so much more than just the place that I worship. Although my local church body is precious to me, God has brought so many amazing believers into my life this last year from all over the US and from different denominations. And as I’ve been reading books on missions all over the world, I deeply desire to have relationships with believers in other countries, from other cultures…to learn to see God through a different lens than just my American made lens. I know this will come in time and I look forward to this, but for now I’m enjoying the sisters-in-Christ who approach the throne differently than I ever have and I am learning to give God room to do whatever He wills instead of trying to make him fit into a box created by denomination. This has grown my faith, my prayer life and my appreciation for the different gifts God has bestowed upon His people.
Thank you friends for blessing my heart.
Now to name my elephant….
Heather