Now for the bitter . . . "The Goose." We are just a few days shy of our one year anniversary of our referral for little baby N. He turned one a month ago and has now spent all but 10 days of his little life, laying in one room, in one crib and in the arms of multiple caregivers. He has nobody to call "mommy." He has nobody to call him "son." He has nobody of his very own. The stories from the region where he lives are, as someone else with a child stuck there put it this week, "incomprehensible." What the people in charge of these precious little lives are doing is so unjust and so incomprehensible that even if I tried to share some of the personal stories, it would just sound trite. There is no other word for all of the families and children in our situation, other than heart breaking and even those words don't hold a candle to the real emotions behind it all.
Every day I wonder what we would do if N cleared??? If that did happen, I would be calling young and old, short and tall, those of all faiths and asking for prayer. I would need an angel to come down from the heavens (with a large check in hand, no less) and tell us that we should and are capable of bringing N home. I kinda feel like Maci is doing so amazingly well, yet I still feel like bomb has gone off in our house and many days, it still feels like survival is the name of the game. I'm just not sure we, as a family, could make it through another toss up, without some time to gather our feet underneath us.
I have found it easy to tell people that I'm just not sure we could move forward with Goosey at this point, but if I even give myself over 60 seconds to think about it, or if I try to take any pictures down, the tears pour out. Big-Huge-Ethiopian tears (those kids have some serious tear ducts, btw). We have decided to do a couple things, though. We decided to keep our homestudy updated, but at the same time, we have decided to live our lives as if our family is complete. We've spent the last two years, scrimping, saving, holding back, not taking trips, saving vacation time, and basically putting our lives on hold. . . . in preparation for a child and now it is time to start letting the line out a little and enjoy moving forward from here.
One of the many difficult parts of the whole Goose business, is wondering where God is, in his story. I mean, if our story just started with Maci, then we would be sitting in our house, saying things like, "The wait was hard, but God is good," and "she is so amazing and God knew that she belongs in our family." It would be easy to give God the glory and other Christian phrases like that. BUT - that is not where our story began. It began with Goosey and he hasn't moved an inch since we first saw his picture and there isn't much promise that he will move anywhere in the future. It is hard to say, "God is good," under these circumstances. It is hard to believe anything about God under these circumstances. Even if I feel like our family is complete, what about Goose? He has no family. What will happen to him? The last family that went over a couple months ago, still said that he doesn't use his legs. If he had come home when he should have, he would most likely be a thriving little one year old right now, but his chances at a "normal" life seem to be diminishing. So, is God good? What it came down to for me, was, "did he die and come back to life or not?" It's the crux of the Christian faith. If I believe that is true, then I believe the rest is true. If I don't believe that He rose again, then I don't believe the rest. It's all or nothing and I just can't help it . . . I believe that Jesus died and rose again and that He is who He says He is.
I have stopped trying to figure out why our story went as it has or why there ever had to be a "Goose" if we were supposed to get Maci this whole time? I doubt that any of it will ever make sense to me, this side of heaven, but what I know is that we will continue to treasure the responsibility to pray for Goosey and we will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS love the little guy.
I have found it easy to tell people that I'm just not sure we could move forward with Goosey at this point, but if I even give myself over 60 seconds to think about it, or if I try to take any pictures down, the tears pour out. Big-Huge-Ethiopian tears (those kids have some serious tear ducts, btw). We have decided to do a couple things, though. We decided to keep our homestudy updated, but at the same time, we have decided to live our lives as if our family is complete. We've spent the last two years, scrimping, saving, holding back, not taking trips, saving vacation time, and basically putting our lives on hold. . . . in preparation for a child and now it is time to start letting the line out a little and enjoy moving forward from here.
One of the many difficult parts of the whole Goose business, is wondering where God is, in his story. I mean, if our story just started with Maci, then we would be sitting in our house, saying things like, "The wait was hard, but God is good," and "she is so amazing and God knew that she belongs in our family." It would be easy to give God the glory and other Christian phrases like that. BUT - that is not where our story began. It began with Goosey and he hasn't moved an inch since we first saw his picture and there isn't much promise that he will move anywhere in the future. It is hard to say, "God is good," under these circumstances. It is hard to believe anything about God under these circumstances. Even if I feel like our family is complete, what about Goose? He has no family. What will happen to him? The last family that went over a couple months ago, still said that he doesn't use his legs. If he had come home when he should have, he would most likely be a thriving little one year old right now, but his chances at a "normal" life seem to be diminishing. So, is God good? What it came down to for me, was, "did he die and come back to life or not?" It's the crux of the Christian faith. If I believe that is true, then I believe the rest is true. If I don't believe that He rose again, then I don't believe the rest. It's all or nothing and I just can't help it . . . I believe that Jesus died and rose again and that He is who He says He is.
I have stopped trying to figure out why our story went as it has or why there ever had to be a "Goose" if we were supposed to get Maci this whole time? I doubt that any of it will ever make sense to me, this side of heaven, but what I know is that we will continue to treasure the responsibility to pray for Goosey and we will ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS love the little guy.
2 comments:
I can hear your heart aching in this. I've wondered similar things in recent days (different circumstances)...what is God's plan in all of this? Thank you for sharing your heart. Hugs.
"Will you trust me with this even if I never tell you why?" I think that is for me one of the hardest things as a Christian to do. I almost always am pretty sure that I can...but sometimes it is harder than I ever would have imagined. I will continue to prayand beleive that God knows the big picture and we only get a glimpse and hope that you and I can continue to trust Him even if He never tells us why.
Post a Comment