Stuck

I will admit, it has been hard to blog lately. Last week was a dream and as I sit here at my desk, I am torn between staring at a letter from a ten year old boy and pictures of two precious children, who prayerfully, the Ethiopian government will soon recognize as my son and daughter. All I feel is love. I wonder if this is how God feels when we do things that praise him? I am in awe and wonder of the precious things with which my Father has entrusted me and I am honored.

The Best Week Ever!

This week has been the best, EVER! On Monday, Le and I saw pictures of our children for the first time. We have spent the week calling friends and family. We also have spent the week preparing our church's launch next week of a carepoint of 600 orphans in Ngariam, Uganda. I also talked to a friend today who is SOOOO much closer to her adoption than anyone originally thought. Tonight, we went to the Queen (the Ethiopian restaurant in our area) to celebrate. There was no way our week could get any better. And then we came home and opened up the mailbox. You see, in May of this year, I fell in love with my first Ethiopian child,Kaleab. He is ten years old. He has no family and for all I know about him, although he is fed and goes to school, he has no one to love him. Le and I began sending him letters and pictures and praying for him. I just assumed that he had either not gotten our letters or was simply not interested in conversing with a crazy white woman who lived an ocean away. Until tonight. The end of my perfect week. When I popped open our mailbox, I was not surprised to see a letter from Children's HopeChest. I get them all the time, for a variety of different reasons. I almost didn't open it. But the desire to see if it was from Kaleab go the better of me. I almost fainted! It WAS from him.

It said:

"How are you Le and Lindsey? I am Kaleab. I have received your letter. Thank you very much. When I saw your picture, it is so nice. I am in grade A. I am ten years old. My school's name is Birhane Hiwot. I thank my God that he gave me such a great family. I love you and pray for you. Here is Addis Ababa the weather is hot. How is the weather in Oklahoma? I read the Bible verse that you wrote for me. My favorite story in the Bible is Luke Chapter 15. Please read it . I love you too!" Kaleab"

I was bawling! I couldn't remember what Luke Chapter 15 was about. I grabbed my Bible, handed the letter to Le and read. That didn't help my tears. Luke Chapter 15 is about the lost son! I looked at Le and let him know that I needed nothing else for Christmas, this was the best gift ever. If you are looking to give someone an amazing gift this year, click here and give someone a relationship with a child. I will never be convinced that Kaleab receives more from me than I do from him.

I leave you with a picture of the first child who has changed my life.

Details of The Call!

Things have moved so quickly in the last few days, I wanted to write this all down before I forgot. Monday started off as a really crummy day for me. I was stressed and work was BUSY! My desk is usually a mess. But Monday was even worse. I had my phone covered up with some papers and I was running from my secretary's office, to the copier and wasn't paying a lot of attention to where my phone was located (this was big deal because I usually keep it strapped to me during the day). At 2:53p.m. I looked at my phone and I had missed a phone call, (817) area code and there was a voicemail. I started to panic. But I had been duped before. I have a client that lives in the (817) area code and I about broke my neck returning her phone call three weeks ago, only to be extremely disappointed that it wasn't Gladney. So I clicked over to check my voice mail and I heard the sweetest voice in the world "Hi Lindsey, it's Kristen with Gladney." I didn't even finish the message! I dropped the phone and started screaming "I'm a MOM! I'm a MOM!" Hysterically laughing and crying, I couldn't form a thought. I didn't know what to do next. And then I remembered Le. I called him from my office on speaker phone and couldn't tell him what to do next, I was crying and laughing too hard. He finally asked me if I had been in a car accident! :) Luckily, my senior partner was in my office and was telling him to come here because he was a daddy! He left and drove the twenty minutes to my office. I called Kristen back while Le was en route and told her that I wanted to wait for Le to get to me but I just wanted her to answer one question: Was there one or two? She laughed and said "there is two and they are beautiful!"
I started crying again and called Le and told him that there were two! When Le got to my office, we shut my door and called Kristen back. The operator told us Kristin was on the phone and asked if we wanted to leave a message! I just said we would wait. Kristin picked up and said she would email us first the pictures. We saw his pic first. A bouncy bubbly 18 month old toddler, absolutely PERFECT. And then we saw his sister. 6 years old. Just as a PERFECT as her brother. Their story is very sad, but it is their reality and we are honored to be allowed to love them. Now we wait for a court date. More to come, I am sure, but for today, I am relishing in the new title of my life: MOM!

REFERRAL!!!!!!!!

Today Le and I accepted referral for a 6 year old girl and her 18month old little brother. We are beyond delirious and full of joy! Thank you to all of you who have prayed, laughed and cried with us up to this point. More later, getting ready to praise my Father for his absolute perfect timing.

Perspective of a Big Sister

I am the oldest of three. My sister is two years younger while my brother is five years younger. I've always been protective of them both, not only because I'm the big sister but because we've always been so close. We've never lived more than twenty miles apart. Today, for the first time, that changed. My baby sister pulled out of my driveway and headed for Phoenix, to start a new chapter of her life. And while I am so proud of her and excited for her future, the selfish side of me has cried all afternoon. A piece of my heart is missing and I am filled with sadness. I love you Sissy and I miss you already!

Wasted

What is defined as a wasted day? A wasted hour? A wasted moment? Is it where you get nothing accomplished? Or maybe you didn't get to spend it how you wanted? Or did you not forgive someone or ask for some one's forgiveness? Tonight I watched helplessly as a group of people wasted moments, hours, memories. Memories that will never be re-lived and hours that are only filled with pain.
I am at a loss for words and can only pray. God forgive wasted moments.

A Really Great Gift

On December 10th, Le and I will have been married for 5 years. I have wondered for awhile what to get him. 5 years is a long time and is deserving of a really good gift; however, with work, the upcoming holidays and preparing everything for the adoption, I have been out of ideas and I know that Le has been too.
During the past few months we have been gearing our church up to sponsor 600 orphans in Uganda for our Christmas project. Yesterday was the first day that our church heard the announcement of the project and they got to watch this video. I am usually a very emotional person, but yesterday watching the Holy Spirit move through 700 people as they watched the video was almost more than I could bear. I was shaking and as I looked over at Le, I saw that the tears were not just flowing from my face but his. I've always known how passionate I was about this project, about orphans and I knew that Le was supportive, but the best gift that he could possibly have given me this anniversary was a front row seat to his heart! I love you sweetheart!