Emotions

This morning, and over the past week, I have been reading the blog of some of our friends in our adoption group.  Right now they are in Korea and yesterday they received the gift of a lifetime- their daughter ShiEun.  She's just a little younger than Anna and has been raised with a foster family.  They've been waiting a long time for her.  Longer than we have. And their road has been filled with many ups and downs.  What is even most beautiful is that the mom, Dolly, was adopted from Korea as a baby herself, and now her life has come full circle and she is in the place of her birth experiencing a culture she has never experienced as well as experiencing motherhood for the first time.  It is a beautiful story of God's grace in her life.  In fact their blog is called Journey of Grace.  It has been very emotional for me seeing their photos and reading about the joy combined with grief as their little girl transitions from one family to another.  It gives me a little glimpse into what we are going to experience in a few weeks.  In our excitement to have Anna in are arms, in our family, and in our home it is easy to forget how difficult it is going to be for her.  She is going to have to leave everything that is familiar to her. That is going to be hard.  I know there will be grief, and tears. And I know there will be excitement getting to have new siblings and new toys and clothes.  It's hard to know how to prepare ourselves.  Every child reacts differently to being adopted. It is easy to think that we are somehow rescuing her from a difficult life.  In fact she is in a loving place, with good care, good food, and friends to play with.  She doesn't know anything else.  On top of all of this she will be taken to a new country with new foods, new surroundings, and people that don't speak her language.  Can you imagine being two years old and having someone strap you into a car seat for the first time, or not being able to have your favorite food because it just isn't available.  All of these things will become very real for her in a few weeks.

I wanted to share this with you because I wanted you to first of all know that we're not going into this with rose colored glasses on.  We have done a lot of research and training in caring for adopted children as well as building a support system of adoptive parents around us to help us when times are tough, which we know they will be.  Secondly, I would like for you to begin praying for Anna and for our family that God would provide her with the strength and peace she needs to transition into our family.  Pray that we would have grace, compassion, and love for our little girl during her grieving process, however long that lasts.  We know first hand what it is like to live in another culture and the difficulties that brings and want to be sensitive to what she will experience as culture shock. Thank you for joining with us on this journey.  We are getting more excited each day as the day of our departure draws nearer and pray that God would be in every part of the journey that our family is on in this adoption.  Below is a recent picture of "Yin Yin" (on the far right) with her little family.  She just looks so happy and giggly and we pray that this spirit of joy and happiness would continue in her even as she transitions to a new life with our family.