Gotcha Day!!
The boys are here and they are now and forever Allen's. Never again will they be abandoned. They now belong.
I drove to the Zhengzhou government office today to fill out all of the paperwork.
As I drove up to the building to give these boys new life, some person across the street was trying to end their's. The firemen were taking someone down off the top of a building.
John 1:5 says, the light had come into the darkness and the darkness can never extinguish it. It was so sad to see desperation lead someone to the top of a building. All the while, two boys were right across the street receiving new life.
I cannot express the overwhelming joy of seeing my boys walk into the office.
Signature after signature, I became closer and closer to adopting these boys. It was amazing.
Ironically, the custom in China is to stamp your fingerprint on top of your name. It shows that even if you think there is any slight possibility that this isn't me...BAM!! Here's my unique fingerprint, the one thing I have that no one else does, so that there is never any doubt that this is really me. And the fingerprint, it was in red.
Christ came to redeem and to be our passover lamb. He covers me in red. Any doubters, just pass on by because I am His! Just look at his signature on my life and his stamp of red!
God really used the adoptions today to show me that he has painstakingly marked me as His. What an incredible truth! Thank you Jesus!
If you think you are good with directions, come to China. I am terrible with directions! My only hope is that my guess will be bad enough to eventually get me to where I am going faster. I am awful. And that is in America! Well, as a spark of genius, I announce to the boys that we are going exploring around this city. 300 million people in Henan Province, and they were all on the same roads we were today.
I don't know how, but all of the Chinese characters started looking the same. We headed down one street and ended up three streets over.
Lost, scared, curled up in the fetal position sucking my thumb and whimpering, the boys knew that it wasn't good for all Americans or myself to be seen in this situation for long...so they took charge!
Never have the boys been in Zhengzhou but they took The lead today. They looked around, didn't panic, and guided us safely back to our hotel. A street sense I never knew they had.
It really hit me that maybe this is to be expected from children in their situation. These are the children who walk around outside all hours of the night, and parents don't care.
These are the children to which those "things" that shouldn't happen to children, happen to. And it broke my heart.
I see the Gary and Willy of today, not the Gary and Willy of the painful past. But God does. And he heals. He closes open wounds, usually creating a scar to remind us and others of a time to learn from.
There is not a scar on my body that my kids have not asked, "How'd you get that one??" And lovingly I respond, " that one there reminds me to never hold a lizard with teeth again, and that one there reminds me to never ride my bike into a tree again."
Please pray that God will begin to close wounds on these boys, so that they may tell others of times when all felt lost, but God,in His love, was sufficient.
I asked The boys today if they were scared. They said, in decent English, "we're nervous".
And so I pray that my boys will be able to live this quote;
“I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize that He is able to carry out His will for me. It does not matter where He places me, or how. That is for Him to consider, not me, for in the easiest positions He will give me grace, and in the most difficult ones His grace is sufficient.”
J. Hudson Taylor, missionary to China
Thank you for all of your prayers
Doulos
Sent from my iPhone
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