The Bridge

I'm a little late posting about this. Many of my other blogger friends have already told you about this.

Anyway, a group of amazing kids from Kenya came to Lake Jackson over the weekend. They are a group of orphans and vulnerable children who are sharing their love of God through song and dance. They are with a group call The Daraja Children's Choir. Daraja means bridge in Swahili. (I think it's Swahili...it's Swahili, right?) They came to our church and it was just incredible. There aren't words. Their joy is infectious. As I heard their stories and watched them sing and dance I just couldn't keep the tears from coming.

I had the honor of meeting three of the young ladies the day they came in at the Stunz's house. I went over with the boys for a little visit. The girls, Marci, Rahab, and Gladys loved playing with Mikey's floppy hair. They were really interested in knowing more about his adoption. They wanted to know what happened to his mother. They wanted to know when we would talk to him about being adopted. Hard questions. I didn't want to leave that night. Jackson didn't want to leave either. He asked me on the way out to the car if he could stay and spend the night. There's just something about being around these children that is just indescribable. You can just feel the presence of God when you are around them. It's like their love of God is not snuffed out by all of the other junk of life. I think in many of our lives, you can maybe see a glimmer of Jesus every now and then. With these kids it is just an ever present radiance that they carry. I want that. I don't know how to get that.

Randy spoke on Sunday about injustice. That is one passionate man! He spoke about the orphan and the widow and the hungry. How are we helping? We can't try to solve every bit of injustice, but we need to do something. And what am I doing? Just doing what I can to keep my own life rolling along most of the time. I have such a heart for kids, especially kids who are orphaned. I have an ache lately to adopt another child, maybe a little bit older child. I know adopting one child doesn't help the many and it doesn't really solve any global problem. But it does help the one. Adoption is rescue but it is so much more than that. Seeing these Kenyan children, many of whom are orphans, just made this desire to adopt again even stronger. Adopting from Kenya or any other country is not realistic for us at this point. There are many orphans right here in our county. There are orphans who nobody wants because of their age or race or abilities or past. They are unwanted because of the label put on them on paper. If we ever were to adopt again, Phillip and I would have to be unified in this desire. We're not there yet. We may never be there. Maybe I'm just living with my head in the clouds. Maybe it's not right for us right now. Maybe our family is complete. I'm not sure what our part is or how we should act. I guess we need to pray. We may not have a lot to give financially at this point in our lives. We do have abundant love to give. This is not meant to be a guilt trip aimed at Phillip or anyone unsure about adoption. It's just where my heart is right now. I don't know how to make it go away.

These children from Kenya touched so many while they were here. I think their presence here stirred something in everyone who encountered them. For me, they boosted my desire to adopt. For others, the desire is to give financially. Others will feel the need to go on an overseas mission trip. Many people are changed from meeting these kids. I hope we won't let it fade. I hope we will seize the desires put in our hearts and know how to make sense of them. I hope we will seek and find our individual ways to act.