What a difference a day makes!

Well, I know my last post was sharing about how tough our last week has been. But, as I was talking to a close friend I shared that sometimes those tough weeks are a good thing.

This past week I have wept over racism. When was the last time I had truly wept over the effects and the destruction of racism...I don't know that I ever had.

This past week I wept over HIV positive children and the sickness they endure, the heartache they feel over not being "adoptable" to many families, and the loneliness that they feel as they are ostracized and misunderstood and feared. When was the last time I had truly wept over the effects of HIV on children around this world...I don't know that I ever had.

This past week I wept over a little one who will be left behind as her sweet family returns to the States to desperately find a way to bring her home.

This past week I wept over soon coming death of a little one who has cancer...and will die without a forever family.

Jesus tells us that it is blessed to weep. Really? Many times in my own life I run fast from weeping. I desperately pray to escape suffering loss, enduring hard things, and weeping. It is hard to walk the road of weeping...and believe that it is blessed...and that one day we will laugh!

But, that is part of our journey in the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. It is blessed to weep over the deep destruction of racism alive and active in our churches and in each of our lives. It is blessed to weep over the sickness and disease that racks the bodies of sweet babies, little toddlers, precious children, teens, and adults. It is blessed to weep over the plight of orphans and widows and immigrants and the poor.

Jesus wept. That is the most quoted verse in the Bible...and I wrote another whole post about this same topic. And yet, when week of weeping myself to sleep visits me...how quickly I forget those lessons learned. How I forget that this week was a blessed time. It was hard...but it was blessed...because it means we loved much.

Adoption has opened our eyes and our lives to a reality...and we can't go back. We can't live in ignorance that seems to create bliss. We just can't anymore. We can't act like we're going to be the same after this journey. We will weep, we will love, and one day oh how we will laugh with the sheer JOY of sweet fellowship of Jesus Christ.

So, as this week comes to an end...many things have changed and our prayers answered...and many things have stayed just the same. But, we pray that though there be 147 million orphans in this world...there will be one less very soon!

Thank you for praying with us. Thank you for all those who are traveling a similar road and have emailed me. I am gaining so much knowledge from those who have traveled the road. Thank you for sharing life with us.