4 years ago

4 years ago

Seems like just yesterday

and a 

life time ago.

 September 5th, 2010,

 I and my family took the biggest

leap in faith.

We were adopting an 13 year old girl 

who was born and raised in China.

Her paperwork gave us hints of what

her personality was.

Strong will

Outspoken

Not doing well in school.

We knew we had a lot of work to do with

this precious child.

I did a lot of praying every night

to God to give me the 

tools to raise her.

God was with me the whole way thru 

the adoption process and 

has continued to be with me, 

when we hit roadblocks or 

new obstacles we continue

to have complete faith in God.

Moments after meeting Erin

we could tell she was going to

challenge us to the max,

not realizing what we view as the max

and what she viewed as the max were two completely different things

The first 6 months of her being home

were the darkest months I have 

experience in my life.

She test me all the way

down to my core.

Made me questions momentarily many

times a day if I was the right mother for her,

yet God kept saying

Have faith in me, you are not alone,

and YES you are 

her MOTHER.

The village also told me that repeatedly.

I was very open both on the blog (can go to the side bar

and click on postings from Sept. 2010 and on) and in person

about the struggles

that Erin was experiencing,

The struggles that I was experiencing with 

her and becoming a single parent home,

The struggles that Dave was having

of his daughter hating him completely,

The struggles that 1 nine old and 2 8 years old

not understanding why Erin was so cruel

to their mom, dad, other family member and them,

and her taking all their mom's time

away from them.

The struggles of my oldest daughter who was

starting

college and not understanding why Erin

wasn't happy to be here as for herself

she lived 16 years in China. 

 

Yet God was there.

Gave me little glimmers of hope.

To take those little glimmers

and use that as strength

to continue,

even when I felt like I should

throw the towel in..

 4 Years later,

This child of God

who is also my daughter

IS SIMPLY AMAZING.

 This child that had walls so thick,

you could only chisel tiny pieces away at a time

because any bigger pieces left you

total exhausted and defeated.

She challenged everything

And we challenged her back.

 18 months after coming home,

she finally  started to show

her soul,

a healing soul,

a soul that can love and be loved, 

a soul that can be happy and give happiness,

a soul that can be kind, and see kindness in others.

She has come so far in those short 4 years.

The resilient child who only knew

survival skills for 13 plus years

has learned how to live life

to the fullness and learning 

how to live by God's word.

Happy 4 years.