Out of the mouths of babes...

Just a flash post tonight as tomorrow we begin our enormous trip back to the US.

We have to work in the am...then two vans pick us up at 1pm to drive us the 1.5 hours to the airport...then on to Shanghai...where we'll stay overnight.  Thursday am brings the big flights to Tokyo (a 7.5 hour layover!)...and then the flight to Honolulu.  Within a few hours of arriving there we have our first of two immigration appointments for the boys.  Please, keep lifting us up.

Also wanted to pass on a precious moment we had a few days ago.

Potato, our darling who was adopted four years ago, has been pretty quiet since the boys came home. (This is not her nature.)  It seems as though watching this grieving process again has caused her to reflect and sort out the feelings she's experiencing.

Out of the blue, after several days of not mentioning his foster mother, Graham began to wail and ask me again why I wouldn't take him back there...pleading with me to go back...that he wanted her.

Potato, moved over to his side, took his little face in her hands...and began to speak with him, forcefully.

She spoke in Chinese, and then would translate to me every few minutes what her comments had been.

"Mao-tze (his foster mother) had to stay with your yeh-yey (foster father.)  She couldn't come to live in our home, she had to stay and take care of him. 

Do not be afraid, we're your family, you belong with us.  Everything is going to be okay, I promise.

You'll see Mao-tze again, in our home, just like my Nai Nai and Yeh Yeh!  She will come and visit you and our family and you'll see, it will be happy and good. "

(He wailed again with grief.  She, more intently, more passionately took his face in her hands again, caressing his cheeks an forcing him to look directly into her eyes.)

"Stop crying little brother, do not be afraid.  I promise that you will be happy and love your family.  We love you.  We waited for you.  You belong to us."

Four years ago, this week, that wise little soul did not want me to even touch her.  She would scream like I was burning her when I touched her.

How God's love has healed her heart...now she has so much to give...

Thinking on that...causes my faith to soar again.

We love, because He first loved us.