I have been in such a season of joy and thankfulness seeing my friends with their hosted children. Each day I am inspired and in awe at the gifts they have, and how they creatively pour them into loving a child who just a week prior was a stranger. Hearing about their kids actively being a part of helping these orphans find snippets of a childhood that they so long for, emerging from shells of fear because of the warmth of family. I have asked a few if I could share tiny snippets here and there of their hosting experiences of having an orphan in their families for the summer. May these stories of sacrificial love, redemption and God’s awesome plans to bring goodness and healing and joy to those who obey Him bless you, as it blesses them.
Here is a little story of our friends from church who are hosting a girl named Anna. This is just a leaf of the beautiful tree of life God is growing in each family member.
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“Not all who wonder are lost. I think Anna found herself yesterday. The child within that had been just waiting to burst out appeared, and it was at the ocean. After an amazing day of shopping together, where at first I thought oh this is going to be rough, she finally found her voice and decided to tell me what she liked. I found myself standing outside her changing room stall holding back tears just seeing the pure joy she had in showing me that a plain sweatshirt in her favorite color fit. Something just so simple brought her so much Joy. So we headed to the beach and I don’t think she had any idea of what was in store.
As we drove down Tamarak I pointed to the ocean ahead and all I heard was “wow”.
As we got out of the car she gave me one of her many beautiful smiles and walked right to the water. Toes wet she stared at the ocean. We didn’t bring her suit, but it didn’t hold her back. She jumped and jumped, I had no idea that deep down she just wanted to go in fully clothed, well until I saw it. Yep she was drenched and smiling from ear to ear. She could have played in that water for hours, and I would have loved every minute of it. Anna is not lost, she may be wondering, but I think slowly she is finding out that she has been found, not only by us, but by her own self.
