Goodbye

August 9, 2013

Goodbye.  One simple word that we say a hundred times a day in one way or another.  Yet, it is a word with so much potential emotion that we rarely feel.  Our kids and everyone around them felt the full weight of goodbye on Thursday morning.  The staff who found them, loved them, protected them, raised them, and nurtured them as well as any parent would finally came to the day they all had prayed for; a day to let them go.  The other children at the orphanage who had shared life in everyway imaginable with our kids and come to love them as brothers and sisters, had to give their tearful hugs and wave goodbye from the gate without any guarantee of seeing one another again.  It was a rich, beautiful, difficult morning.  We cry when we feel the loss of something dear.  We cry when we have been loved deeply.  We cry because we were not made for a world that requires goodbyes and our hearts ache for a permanent resting place.  Tears are a gift and great reminder that this world is not our home and that our relationships here are only a dim reflection of what we will one day find in Christ himself.  But, while we live here we do cry as many did Thursday morning.   The eldest cried quietly to herself staring out the window of the van.  The middle didn’t say a word but silently lay across the back seat of the van and the youngest chatted and giggled wondering why everyone was crying.  (It did provide a bit of levity amidst all the goodbyes.)  To all those who have been part of the last three years of caring for our children:  Thank You!  In the short time we have spent with them it is so obvious how deeply they have been loved.  They are so full of life, energy, ideas, and laughter.  There has been so much healing that has taken place at your hands and I cannot thank you, staff from the orphanage, for all that you poured into our kids.  Where one might expect to see fear and bitterness in these kids, I find only a desire to be loved and a great capacity for loving!  The verse from 1 John 4 comes to mind about perfect love casting out fear….and you all have done that so well.  You love well, not just because you are great at caring for kids (which you are), but because you love the children in your care with the love of Christ and that changes hearts and lives.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!  May God give you strength and wisdom as you continue to pour out that same love on those who remain in your care and all the little ones yet to enter your doors.  Our prayers are with you!