A few weeks ago, during MLK week, Blair’s class assignment was to write her dream. They completed this assignment at school, and she made no mention of “her dream” until last week when she brought home her school work. I was going through her papers and when I came to this page, I asked her to come in and tell me about it.

You see, my Blair is my thinker. My ponderer (is that really a word?). My save-the-world child.

So when my sweet, tender-hearted child read her dream to me, tears in her eyes, explaining how badly she wants all kids in China to have a home, I lost it right along with her.

She went on to tell me she wanted them to have a mama and daddy. To have sisters that love them and play with them. To have homes with families that love God so that they can know about Him and his love for them.

I’m not surprised at all that this is Blair’s dream. Since we got home with Kate, Blair has asked a lot of questions. Big questions. Really hard to answer questions. And she thinks about the answers, what they mean to her and for the orphans.

She also asked if we could pick kids out to pray for. So we have. Each month, or until the child finds a family, we go through “the list” and pick 3 kids. We print their pictures with their names and ages, and we pray for them each night. And not one night goes by that we don’t pray for them. Just the other night, I was out running an errand, and Mike put the girls to bed. When I came through the door he said, “Blair said to wake her when you got home because y’all have to pray for the girls.” So I did.

I believe that Blair’s tender, soft heart is spot on. I think that we should ache for these kids to have homes. We should be helping them any way we can. I am not saying we should all adopt, but I am saying we should care. We should find a way to help, and we can help in so many other ways than adoption.

This is where my conversation with Blair went after we both stopped crying. She started talking about ways to help. Of course her first question was, “Can we adopt them all?” Love that girl! After I explained that that is just not possible, she came up with other ways. Here is her list:

• We can pray for the kids each day/night. Pray that they are healthy, loved, cared for, and that their families find them soon. If you want to do this and need a few kids let me know. We have a list going.
• We can give to organizations that are helping the orphans. We can give money, supplies, or time. Some great organizations that help in China are Love Without Boundaries, An Orphan’s Wish, New Day Foster Home, and Half the Sky.
• We can collect things an orphanage needs and then mail the care package, or we can order things in China to have them delivered to the orphanage. If you want more info on this please let me know.

And this is how our talk finished:

“Mom, will you and Dad help me with my dream?”
“Of course, babe.”
“But, it’s a big dream, Mom.”
“Yes, Love, it is.”
“But, we can do it?”
“Yes, baby, we can.”

And off she skipped spouting off what she was going to do next to make her dream come true.

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Ashley is a social worker turned stay-at-home mom who rarely stays at home. She has been married for 11 years to the man who makes her laugh until her side hurts and can fix anything with a hug. They have have 3 miracles girls, the youngest (by only 6 months) joined their family from China this past summer. You can check out their adoption journey and musings on life as they know it on her blog.