The Greatest Love

Maybe I was a bit overzealous for our first Valentine’s Day.  I want to give homemade cards and since Roxie Kyle can’t write it seemed only appropriate to use her thumbprints.  Well, have you ever tried to use a pink inkpad with eleven month older wiggly fingers?  Pink ink was everywhere and the cute little thumbprint hearts I had in my mind didn’t turn out to even resemble a heart.  

Regardless, we had a sweet time together, mother and daughter, working on our first craft project.  (I hope there are many more to come). 

While we crafted I told her about Valentine’s Day.  I told her it was a day dedicated to celebrating love. 

I told her I loved her (for probably the millionth time). 

I told her about the greatest love. 

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

“but God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Romans 5:18

I told her about the greatest commandment.

“And He answered, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”  Luke 10:27

I told her my prayer for her is Jesus will be her greatest love.

I told her that His love is better than life. 

“Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you.”  Psalm 63:3

I know that right now she may not understand what I’m telling her.  But I also know that I am commanded to teach these truths to my children at all times. 

“And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise . . .”  Deuteronomy 6:6-7

What a sweet responsibility to teach my sweet girl these truths.  Praise be to God!  

Forgetting what lies behind

As I walked into the care center I saw a group of women huddled around a tub filled with soapy water, washing bottles. They looked up as I walked in the gate, no greeting.  I continued walking toward the door and spoke my daughter's Ethiopian name with question to the first person I saw inside the house. The lady understood the name and pointed toward a door, one which I already knew led to another baby's room. That's good, I thought as I headed toward the other room. This room, I knew from our last visit, was smaller.  Roxie would probably receive a little more one on one attention from the nanny. As I walked into the room I spoke her name again to the nanny standing inside the door. As she turned the small room came in to view and I saw her, those eyes.  Those eyes that nine months ago stared at me on the computer screen for the first time, eyes that I had looked at more times than I could count on my phone, eyes that I saw when I drifted off to sleep each night. The difference is that now I didn't have to look on a computer screen or on a phone or in a memory.

I scooped her up from her bed and pulled her in close for hugs and kisses. This was my daughter. The daughter God had planned for me before the beginning of time. I didn't have to leave her again.

After a quick change of clothes we passed out hugs and thank yous to the nannies, collected a container of Ethiopian formula, and climbed into the van. I breathed a sigh of relief that the waiting part of this process was over.  She was finally in my arms.  Arriving at this point had been a journey filled with joy but also suffering.  As the van moved forward carrying this new family of three I couldn't help but look ahead to all that was in store.  I was reminded of the apostle Paul's words.

". . . Forgetting what lies behind and straining to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus."

I want to embrace each experience God gives me along the way.  I want to embrace this sweet memory of bringing Roxie home and all that God has taught me.  But it is not the end. It is only a portion of the race, this earthly journey.  There is still so much more ahead, so much more to look forward to.  Ultimately I must continue to strive towards the goal of being like Christ.  

"Only let us hold true to what we have attained."

Rejoice in the Lord!

Bringing Roxie Home

Thanks Kendra Mason at Immeasurably More Photography for capturing this special day of  bringing roxie home!

Click here to see the video.

finally HOME

There is so much I want to say, yet so much I don’t know how to say.

For now all I can do is praise God and thank Him for this gift!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

Praise Him all creatures here below

Praise Him above ye heavenly host

Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost

WELCOME HOME ROXIE

What about the other?

A few weeks ago I introduced you to our sweet Roxie. Since that post we have had several

people ask about our little boy. So I want to answer those questions and give a general

update.

There are many steps to the adoption process which I wrote about here. And even with those

steps there are still many minor details in between, and things that come up unexpectedly. That

is the case for our little guy. We are still very positive and hopeful that he will come home.

However, it seems that his homecoming is not with his sister, as we had expected. There is one

item that is missing from his paperwork in order to be submitted to court. Yes, one. It seems

that one little piece of paper can lead to major obstacles and delays for a life waiting to join his

family. However, we know and believe that God is in control of the perfect timing for his life.  

Unfortunately, until he legally becomes our little boy we cannot introduce him to you. Oh how

I want you to meet him. So just for now I'll offer a sneak peak of him resting peacefully in his

daddy's arms.

Behold the Lamb of God

“Behold the Lamb of God

who came to take away the sins of the world.”

John 1:29

Last year around the middle of December I noticed that Noel Piper was posting daily advent readings.  The word advent was not unfamiliar to me. However, it was something I had never celebrated/practiced so I didn’t fully understand the advent season.  Since I was a child I had seen advent calendars, typically filled with tiny pieces of chocolate for each day of December.  So I assumed it was simply the countdown to Christmas day.  The daily readings held so much more than a piece of chocolate; so I decided to dig a little deeper about this season of advent. 

What I found was eye-opening.  The word advent means coming.  It isn't just a tradition but a reflection of the thousands of years that led to the coming of Christ, God robed in flesh as a baby. 

All the way from Genesis to Malachi the journey of the Israelites points to a desperate need for a King, a Savior, a Redeemer, a Deliverer, a Sacrifice.  The Israelites could not do it on their own. They could not uphold the law.  They could not offer enough animal blood to cover their sins.  No matter how hard they tried they could not deliver themselves from slavery.  Even of the Godliest of men that arose to lead them, they would still need more.  But not just them.  We need a savior.  We need delivering. 

I no longer want to ignore or overlook what led to Jesus’ birth, the reason for His coming. I no longer want to rush through this season of remembering. The history of God's people, the Israelites, is crucial in the magnificence of God delivering me from my sin through the word becoming flesh.

“The incarnation of the Savior of the world

could have come to pass in any number of ways. 

But God, in his infinite wisdom,

chose this couple for this night in this shelter. 

This boy, the angel had told them,

would be the heir to David’s throne. 

He would be

their wonderful counselor,

their mighty God,

their everlasting Father,

their Prince of Peace. 

The government would be upon his shoulders.”

Behold the Lamb of God by Russ Ramsey

Based upon Isaiah 9:2-7

And do you know what else I learned? There will be another, different advent, a second coming. 

Meet Roxie . . .

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

 in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

Psalm 139: 13-16

I have prayed many prayers for my daughter since we received the phone call about her on May 3, 2012.  I always pray for her salvation.  That the Lord will draw her to Himself and adopt her into His family so that she will know an adoption greater than her physical adoption into the Wilson family.  I also have found myself thanking God for knitting her together in the womb of her birth mother.  She is fearfully and wonderfully made!  I pray that she will praise God for that on her own someday, but for now I am praising Him on her behalf.  I am also thanking Him for writing her days before they ever came to be and that those days have led her to our family. 

I will never forget the first time I saw her big, beautiful brown eyes and long eyelashes.  My heart overflowed with love for this tiny creation, God’s creation for our family. I couldn’t wait to wrap my arms around her.  Several months and lots of tears later I was able to do just that.  As I walked into her room our eyes locked.  She was sitting up in a bumbo waiting for us.  Bending down to her level, our eyes never parted and I slowly picked her up trying to gauge her comfort level with me.  She still never took her eyes off of me, intensely studying this white lady that was enveloping her.  As I pulled her close, she comfortably laid her head on my shoulder and snuggled in.  This is where she fit.  Even before the creation of the world it was God’s plan for her to be my daughter and for me to be her mommy.  Tears streamed down my face as I turned her toward B and said, “She knows I’m her mama.” 

Roxie is God’s and He has entrusted her to us on this earth to raise under His truth, teaching her the gospel each day of her life.  We are thankful and honored and oh so blessed to be her parents. 

Meet Roxie . . . she has the biggest, darkest brown eyes, a crinkle in her nose when she smiles, a new discovery of her tongue, and two new teeth peeking out from her perfectly pink baby gums.  She is officially and legally our daughter!