Tonight I’m just going to ramble.
I am sitting on a hotel room bed with Brian reading a book beside me. We’ve got a lamp on, but thankfully both the girls were able to fall asleep with it on. Brian’s work was going to take him away overnight for the first time and I’m just so not interested in that. So we came with him and hung out and played in the hotel all day today while he worked. I am blessed to be part of a family where being together is so, so, dearly enjoyed that the “inconvenience” of travel is hardly noted.
I wonder if they are going to kick us out of our room before Brian is done with work tomorrow. I hope they let us stay through Maggie’s nap. Hmm. We shall see! I doubt it’s worth the additional $77 to book teh room for another night so she can sleep. 🙂 But really, i will be winging it tomorrow.
We shared in front of church on Sunday about orphans and the orphan crisis and that WE ARE ADOPTING SEAMUS! I am so thrilled to be in a position to announce that. After seriously hoping/trying to adopt for so long, it just feels so GOOD to be moving forward for real. So often I feel like I am a kid playing at being a grown up. How great that being a grown up is not boring. Too bad it doesn’t mean that we have all the answers, like I thought it did when I was a kid.
I was surprised for the first time recently when somebody unexpected made a unloving comment about kids with special needs. And followed it with an uncomplimentary, ungenerous attitude about people who live in other countries. I’ve been working on processing the experience… to find the loving, God-honoring HEART response that I should have. The one where I can grieve for the hurt children, give the person the benefit of the doubt…. i don’t know. I’m still processing. And I haven’t even begun to know what I should say. But most of the people I know are pretty disconnected with special needs and don’t realize the God-given PERFECT gifts that they are. And I can’t blame them for devaluing these children and adults in their heads without even trying to. But for God, I wouldn’t have been opened to the blessings of people who are treasures to God but who are so different.
Ok, time to turn off the lights. And I could have rambled on for many more paragraphs!
The comments….you enter a new world when you enter the world of adoption of a child who doesn’t “look” like you either due to race or special needs. I don’t know if it ever gets easier to handle- at 5 yrs in, it hurts just as much. It hurts worse when it’s from Christian people..and it happens from them all the time. That’s why my online bloggy adoptive Mama friends are so important in my life…they “get” it during the times when the rest of the world doesn’t. They encourage me when I feel down about always feeling “different” for loving His orphan children. Prayers that we all find our own ways of handling the hurtful comments with the grace. God bless, Jennifer