Miracles!

There are upwards of 147 million orphans in this world...MINUS 2!

We have recently got to witness some amazing ways God has worked in our friends’ lives (all on the same day!).  First, the Whites.  I knew Kylie as a girl when we were both in FL and we reconnected as adults now that we’re both here in NC.  Kylie and her husband, John, were a typical family of four when they felt the call to adopt…TWO kids…from Congo!  It has been a long journey, from about the time you were born, and this past week, they finally came home with their two new children, Maran (means ‘praise the Lord’ ‘the Lord is coming/comes’) and Levi (means ‘grafted in’).  We got to follow their day by day journey to go get them on Facebook and were honored to meet them at the airport with a crowd when they finally became a family of six.  This truly is the Gospel on display as adoption parallels so well what Christ did/does for us: when we were yet sinners, having and wanting nothing to do with God, He pursued us by leaving heaven, and did everything necessary, paying the highest price by going to the cross and rising again to give us a new life (Romans 5:8; John 3:16-17, Hebrews 7:25, among others). 

The big sis!

Love his shirt!

Hadn't seen their mama in a month!

Sweet Levi, your future friend:)

Meeting another adopted boy, from Uganda.

Afterwards we went to the Airport observation deck, again:)

   Once they finally arrived, I was crying and laughing and you were soooo patient to sit and watch in your strollerJ  One of my first thoughts was how small Levi was.  You two are only a month apart yet he is about ½ your weight and size-so small.  I thought, orphans don’t just need a meal and shelter, they need love and a home to thrive.  Ever since I was pregnant with you and kept hearing about the famines and desperation in the Horn of Africa, I have not been able to look on your precious, care-for, peaceful self and forget about the 147 million orphans in the world that do not have a home and love.  We donate and pray for these children constantly.  May the Lord send revival to His church to take care of the orphan crisis once and for all, and may he begin with us (be the answer to the prayer you’re praying).  I want to be “found faithful” (as I heard written on a man’s tombstone), to love the world as Christ loved us, sacrificially.  To make people our mission, not things.  To see a clear need and actually do something in response.  You can visit her blog, beautifully written, at onalightstand.com
   The other joyous miracle we enjoyed seeing (again, on Facebook;), was of my high school best friend, Kathleen, and her husband Josh, welcoming their triplets into the world!!  They wanted kids for many years and were not able to have them until they finally were pregnant with twins and one of them split to be identical twins, hence, triplets!  God is still a creating God and it is proof in the new life of Kaitlyn, Haley and Hunter.  They were born at 32 weeks and are all making great progress.  It is just killing me not to be there and smooch them up!