Consumed

There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of them. Sometimes, it seems as though I can't go a minute. Today is one of those days. Ever since I woke up I haven't been able to get the orphans out of my head. Sometimes I think about Claudia or the other Eagle's Nest kids but sometimes I think about them as a group. The millions of children without parents and my heart aches. I read a new blog this morning and the mother was telling a story about her daughter who they adopted from China. It's long but it sums up my feelings and aching heart for them today:

Isabelle has been here two years now. The nighttime has always been difficult since we first got her. I am sure that her orphanage at night must have been a very scary place to be. She often is so disturbed that she awakens crying out, "I want Momma!" I go in and comfort her and she goes back to sleep. But tonight as I rocked her we had a little talk about China. I asked her if she remembered China? She said, "Yes!" I asked her, "What do you remember?" Isabelle said, "The cribs!" I said, "What did you feel in those cribs?" She said, "LONELY!!!", and she put her hands up by her face and sobbed and sobbed! (She always kept her hands up by her face when we first got her. Her little hands would bar her face as a safety zone.) My heart broke for this baby of mine. She then cried, "I want my Mommy!" I told her with tears in my eyes that I came as quickly as I could. I also told her for the first time that she came out of a tummy of a beautiful lady in China...her own China Mom! She seemed so happy when I told her this. She knew her sister Abigail had come out of my tummy. I told her that her China Mommy loved her so much, but she could not keep her and she knew God would give her to someone very special and that was us!I rocked and rocked my baby that night until she fell asleep, safe in her mother's arms. I wondered where all the other little baby girls from her orphanage were just then. And who would help them heal their broken hearts when there is no mother or father to keep them safe and protect them from the terror of night. No one to comfort or explain to them that God loves them so much that he sent his only Son so they could be safe for all eternity? Jesus' words ring in my ears..."When he saw the crowd around him he had compassion on them for they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples,'The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest field." Is the church so busy with their "ministries" that they can not see the ripe harvest waiting to be brought in? Will the harvest die before it is reaped? Please Lord, send them!!

Oh how that story breaks my heart. Even after two years in an amazingly loving family that sweet girl could still feel the hurt and loneliness. I remember being at Eagle's Nest and too often the precious babies would cry themselves to sleep. I tried to hold two at a time because I couldn't bear to hear them crying and after they'd settled down and fallen back asleep I would gently set them back down in their cribs. As soon as they felt my arms leave their little bodies they would immediately begin crying again. Where are the adoptive families? If one or two out of every 33 Christian families would adopt there wouldn't be any more orphans in the world. There wouldn't be any more babies screaming so hard they start shaking just because they want to be held and loved. So the next time you start thinking about this major problem of the orphans, don't push it out of your mind. We always make ourselves stop thinking about it because it's too painful or we don't want to face the Lord's calling for us regarding it. But please don't do that! When you think of the millions of children, or the the cries of the babies from your mission trip plague you as they do me, ask the Lord if there's a reason He's burdened you with those thoughts today. If you don't find a clear answer then lift up a prayer for them today. Pray that a starving child gets a piece of bread or that a sick one gets some medicine. Or even as simple a thing that a lonely child gets a loving kiss and embrace. How is the Lord calling you even right now to help these children? Or is He preparing your heart for adoption someday in the future? We won't know until we get there, but He's touching each of somehow and I guess today's just one of those days.