I don't know that I have anything left to be say that I haven't already said before about my little girl. But today, for us, is very special. I took a day off work just to watch it and live it and try my best to savor it because it will only happen once. It is a quiet victory, but a milestone in the life of our family and most especially the little girl for whom we labored to bring home.
My daughter was born August 23, 2007 in Astrakhan, Russia. For the 957 days following her life was filled with neglect, pain and uncertainty... 957 days...
On April 6th, 2010 My wife and I walked out of a dusty Russian orphanage with that little girl, never to return. Her life is now filled with family, love, happiness, and the ever present Gospel of The God who Saves... And that, friends, was 958 days ago...
Today for the very first time in Rebekah's life, the days she has been found outnumber the days where she was lost. The days where she has been known and loved, celebrated, hugged, kissed and held and made much of and poured into are more than those spent in the most broken of circumstances in the lonely of a fallen world.
So we celebrate.The scales have been tipped. The old life is even more distant and the new is ever more plentiful.
My wife, Rebekah and I sat at the table of our hotel room 958 days ago for our first meal together. The distance we have covered from that day to this I find simply remarkable. To God be the Glory. In just a few days we will once again sit at the table of plenty at our family thanksgiving and she will be no one's guest, she will simply belong. She has a family, a legacy, and a future and a place reserved for her.
But there are still so many more that need a chair at the table of plenty. They need mother's to rock them, father's to protect them, grandparents to spoil them, and siblings and cousins to play with them. There are so many more who are lost, who don't know how it could be or how it should have been...
So, I implore you to consider adoption or, at the very least, consider helping and supporting those who are in the process of it. You could play a role in the rescue and redemption of a child. You could bring them over the threshold and ensure their hearts and stomachs are made full at the family table. I beg you, consider the orphan.
My daughter was born August 23, 2007 in Astrakhan, Russia. For the 957 days following her life was filled with neglect, pain and uncertainty... 957 days...
On April 6th, 2010 My wife and I walked out of a dusty Russian orphanage with that little girl, never to return. Her life is now filled with family, love, happiness, and the ever present Gospel of The God who Saves... And that, friends, was 958 days ago...
Today for the very first time in Rebekah's life, the days she has been found outnumber the days where she was lost. The days where she has been known and loved, celebrated, hugged, kissed and held and made much of and poured into are more than those spent in the most broken of circumstances in the lonely of a fallen world.
So we celebrate.The scales have been tipped. The old life is even more distant and the new is ever more plentiful.
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| Daddy and daughter's first meal together April 6th, 2010 |
My wife, Rebekah and I sat at the table of our hotel room 958 days ago for our first meal together. The distance we have covered from that day to this I find simply remarkable. To God be the Glory. In just a few days we will once again sit at the table of plenty at our family thanksgiving and she will be no one's guest, she will simply belong. She has a family, a legacy, and a future and a place reserved for her.
But there are still so many more that need a chair at the table of plenty. They need mother's to rock them, father's to protect them, grandparents to spoil them, and siblings and cousins to play with them. There are so many more who are lost, who don't know how it could be or how it should have been...
So, I implore you to consider adoption or, at the very least, consider helping and supporting those who are in the process of it. You could play a role in the rescue and redemption of a child. You could bring them over the threshold and ensure their hearts and stomachs are made full at the family table. I beg you, consider the orphan.
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| 958 Days later. |
