perspective

Last night we celebrated two Gotcha days by joining our local Families with Chinese Children group at a Chinese buffet. After we made our way home, we finally pulled out the Gotcha day gifts we purchased in China for the kids. We let Julia sort through her gifts to choose the one she wanted, and Andy chose Wyatt's gift. Wyatt received this drum. Julia got her drum like this last year. It has the years of the Chinese Zodiac on one side and the appropriate symbol to match on the other side. Wyatt's drum has a horse on it because he was born in the year of the horse. Julia's has a monkey (chuckling here) because she was born in the year of the monkey - quite appropriate.

Julia chose this drum, and wow, this little thing produces a nice sound.

Jordan, a shop owner in Guangzhou did the writing on Julia's drum (Wyatt has one to, also done by Jordan). This is another red thread in Julia's adoption. The number 7 was all over her adoption, but pearls were as well. I think Jordan just comes up with stuff on the spot to put on the things on which he does calligraphy. He chose the pearl as one of Julia's symbols, and that happens to be her birthstone, and while in China to adopt her, we spent our entire trip staying at a hotel on the Pearl River.

I think most of you know the red thread story, but if you don't, it is a Chinese proverb that states that a red thread connects those people who are destined to meet. It may tangle, but it never breaks. In the adoption community, many people call the pieces that pull together their relationship with their children red threads. In our house we call them God's markers and red threads.

The rest of this post is just ramblings on something that was on my mind yesterday. Read on if you like.

An interesting take on this:

Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. If you say, "But we knew nothing about this,": does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Doe not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay each person according to what he has done? Proverbs 24:11-12

Yesterday as I was searching for the scripture that was a turning point in our decision about Wyatt, I came across the above scripture. This is the way it struck me yesterday. Wyatt was not being led to death. This scripture indicates that if you can stop someone from being led to death, and you do nothing then God will hold you responsible. However, on second thought, maybe on some level Wyatt was being led to the second death. He knew nothing of Christ when he came to us and still struggles to understand the basics of our faith. If he had been raised in China, maybe he would have come to know Christ, but most likely, he would not have.

What now do we do with this? Orphans are found all over the world. They are often the forgotten and most vulnerable. I am always tickled by those who say to me, "you have done your part for the orphans" --as if God has some quota that we met, or worse is the implication that we are doing ongoing work for the orphans because we adopted two of them. On the contrary, our work for the orphans ended on the day these adoptions were finalized because at that point, our children were no longer orphans. Yet I firmly believe that the command to help the orphans is an ongoing command, so we still have to find our role in doing that. Will this family adopt again? Our hearts are open to that road, but our finances are screaming "NO." However, that does not deter us. We will walk through the doors God opens. It is not easy, and sometimes we think we are crazy with the schedules we keep and the needs that must be met, but we were never called to a leisurely life, and now this scripture weighs on my mind. What exactly does it mean to know there is a need and to not meet it? This does not necessarily mean adoption because as I pointed out, adoption ends the orphan status. We may need to sponsor an orphan or encourage families through the process or take mission trips to love on orphans. ...much to think about