He was laying in his bed, head shoved into the hard wood between the rails of his crib and the thin mattress, desperately sucking his thumb and whimpering. I picked him up, kissed his little head — burning up. The nanny turned to me, “He’s not feeling well,” she said. I nodded, and held him close. He nuzzled closer and looked up at me.
Only an orphan for a little more than a week and already he has to learn about being alone the hard way. Feverish and uncomfortable and mama’s got two arms and eleven babies.
my arms are yours for now, little one
We pray for families to come quickly for these little ones, but when it has only been days since he last knew the touch of his mother’s hand, or the voice of his daddy… it’s hard. It’s hard to hope for a future that shouldn’t be. It’s hard to get excited about adoption, when a little one has so recently been abandoned.
Do you get me? Do you understand? I’m all for adoption, I think that it’s beautiful – God works through His body to restore and redeem and paint for us, His children, a picture of His great love. But it’s still hard… there is pain and scars and brokenness, and the brokenness is so much more evident in the beginning few pages of a child’s story. What will happen next? I don’t know. But what I do know is that today a little one is grieving the loss of his parents. He’s grieving the fact that he is not their Precious One anymore.
come, Lord Jesus, come
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When Hannah traveled to China in 2002 with her parents to adopt her sister Elisabeth, she fell in love with the country and people. In 2004, when her other sister Naomi was adopted, she started dreaming of going back. It took 5 years for that dream to come true. She now serves in a foster home for special needs orphans in China. Hannah spends her days studying, writing for the foster home and on her personal blog, Loving Dangerously, and most importantly, holding babies. Hannah loves the adventure of living overseas with her family. It’s not always easy, but it’s always worth it.