heart.

You all know I'm a lover of adoption when it is best for the child. I also am a fierce 

protector of children & their personal journeys. So, while you'll never hear me talk 

specifics about the hard, don't be disillusioned. Adoption is based on loss and there is 

much hard in it. 

Please excuse the somewhat crude analogy, but when you adopt an 

older child (most waiting children ARE older children) it is somewhat like an arranged 

marriage at first. Learning about each other, understanding each other's views on 

life & how to love.  Maybe even more odd are the times coming into this "arrangement" 

where a person who fully, whole-heartedly loves them.  That can be hard for kids to

navigate.  So, we do this sweet dance called attachment and figure it out as 

we go.  The lows can be heart-breaking, but the highs?  They are so sweet.  It 

is a taste of redemption.  Not from us.  We are not the saviors.  The Lord is.  

Any good in me that's been poured out is only Him.  Any love that's flowed 

over?  Only him.  

So, to smell the beauty of Uganda coming from our

kitchen as our oldest boy prepared dinner for his family was a blessing

to my heart.  As I came down the stairs to everyone else sitting down

at the table with their rice, beans and circle-shaped chapati,

Nico said, I made you a special chapati, Mom.  

And, well, I never knew a piece of food could hold so much

love and emotion.  Rejoicing in all His gifts today.