As we walked along the paths to the play yard, in search of our daughter, it was never far from our minds that this was our last day with her. Her groupa was already headed outside, but once we caught up with them and called her name, a moment unfolded that I hope to never forget.
We called her name, she turned, spotted us and her face lit up like the sun itself. Her whole entire countenance changed as she began running toward us. As soon as I saw her face shining, I got down on her level and received her into my embrace. My heart was full.
Our play time together was just like any other day, but we were treasuring every moment. I felt like Mary in Luke 2:19:
But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
As we played, it was clear she had learned over the days to anticipate our every move. She would get to the top of the slide and wait, slightly lifting her arms, expecting one of us to come up behind her, slipping our arms under hers, enfold her into our embrace, count to three in Russian and then slide down in glee.
When we would begin to climb the stairs, one of her hands used the rail, the other stuck out in anticipation of the filling with our bigger, stronger one to help her up.
She would sit on the swing sideways and quietly listened as I told her of her new family and sung to her. Sometimes she
Heartbreaking, indeed!
I will pray for your heart and hers!
What a joyous day it will be when you are reunited….forever!
Hello Brandy. I really enjoyed reading your story. Such a hard thing to walk away from your own child. I remember the feeling, unlike any I had ever had, to be the mother of a stranger (who didn’t feel like a stranger, but a daughter or son)– to have such a strong mother/child connection and have to walk away. It felt deeply disturbing, yet I also remember having a gift of faith for that waiting time between trips and knowing that our prayers were ministering love supernaturally to our children.
We also have 7 children–three birth daughters and then four adopted(one daughter and three sons) from Russia. They were 10, 7 and 5 when they came home and now are 21, 18, 17 and 16!
God bless you all and may God cover your precious daughter, protecting her and revealing Himself to her even now while she waits.
The great news is that our time of reunion is right around the corner. We have court on August 9 and will be able to bring her home by the end of August!