preparing hearts

You may remember that I've mentioned on this blog many times my prayers that God would prepare our hearts for the child that would be part of our family.

Well, get this.

Two stories from this past week that show how God is answering those prayers.

On Monday, I was making Oreo balls with Jackson and Brooks because that is the treat they wanted to make for their teachers as part of their end-of-the-year gift of thanks. So there we were at the kitchen counter and the boys were rolling Oreo 'dough' between the palms of their hands.

Jackson says, 'Momma, we'll have to teach James how to roll Oreo balls.'

'Yep, we sure will.'

'We'll show him how he has to roll it in his hands.'

I pause wondering if he'll catch his use of the word 'hands.' He goes on to explain the technique James will have to use.

'Buddy, you remember that James only has one hand,' wondering what his response will be.

He stops rolling and looks up at me. 'Well, how will he roll Oreo balls then?'

'We'll figure it out, won't we?'

Then he raises his hand in the air and says knowingly, 'I can use one of my hands and he can use his hand!'

It was like my heart set sail.

'That's right, buddy! You guys can be a team! Good job being your brother's keeper.'

'Yeh, I can be his keeper too.'

Inside, I'm fist-pumping knowing good and well that he's getting it. That little heart of his preparing for his little brother, James.

A couple days later, Payton comes down stairs in the morning and flops down on the couch.

'Momma, I had a bad dream.' For the record, I can't stand it when our kids have bad dreams. I remember feeling very heavy when I was a kid and I would wake in the morning and remember my bad dreams. Not a peaceful feeling at all.

'Oh, honey, I'm so sorry. Do you want to talk about it?'

'Yeh. I dreamt that we were adopting James and then you and Daddy changed your minds and decided to adopt a little girl. I woke up crying in my bed.'

Omigosh. I pulled her close and tears streamed down my face. Clearly, I was sad for her because she experienced grief in her sleep, but my heart was breaking with the realization that she loves our boy! She loves him.

I said, 'P, do you realize that means you love James? God has given you love in your heart for a little boy that you haven't even met yet.'

She slowly grinned in acknowledgement.

These moments are divine. These moments are the ones that only our Heavenly Father who loves orphans as much as he loves us can orchestrate. How thankful I am.

Update: we received our on-line approval from CCCWA yesterday! The first of three approvals! Woot! Woot! Getting word from our social worker and seeing our names in English in a paragraph of Chinese characters was surreal. This is really happening. The process of this little boy, who is so very, very far away, becoming part of our family is truly happening.

And, we're waiting on one document to come back for our dossier to be complete. We then take all 10 or 15 documents, have them all notarized, send copies to our dossier specialist in Massachusetts to review them and then we'll get the go ahead to take it all to the Secretary of State here in Virginia to have the documents certified. That supposedly only takes a few hours one day and then we can submit it to the Chinese Embassy in DC.

We could so use your prayers that God will move mountains during this final process. After learning of James' crocodile tears of sadness, we can't get to him fast enough. Not to mention that ever since I heard that story, I can't look at his photos the same. Not sure if I'm imagining it, but his eyes seem sparkly and alive in his younger photos and kind of empty and hallow in his older photos. I just know that every month in that orphanage without adequate attention and nurture causes these poor babies to shut down. We don't want our boy to shut down! Some say it's not possible to get him sooner than this fall, but I say nothing is impossible with God!