Grateful

These past 5 months have been a very hard journey for me to experience.  It is a journey that honestly I am not really sure how to put into words, but I was reminded yesterday and today about how great this journey is and how grateful I am for EVERY second of it.   

Yesterday, we as a BG family, celebrated the adoptions of 2 precious children.  Each family came from different backgrounds.  Each family had different stories and different perspectives on life.  Each family has a new daughter to love and cherish.  I can't share the families personal stories on this blog, but I will say that hearing one of the stories made tears of joy fill my eyes.  Seeing the love that radiated from their eyes, knowing the heartache they walked through to get them to get their daughter, was an overwhelming experience.  I am grateful for these two families.  I am grateful for their steps of faith, to go against status quo and love children that in the eyes of the world were thought of as garbage.

Today we welcomed a 2 month old baby girl into our the BG family.  She came to us, because her mother was too sick to care for her.  When helping the nurse check her in, my heart was upset at the mother.  How long has she been too sick to care for this child?  How long has this child been neglected?  From the child's chest to her knees, her skin was completely raw from a diaper rash.  She was is so much pain.  We tried every cream, oil and salve that we had at BG to try and comfort her.  In the end what stopped her crying was when I wrapped her in a blanket and snuggled her in my arms.  I am so grateful that BG exists.  I am grateful we are here to accept these children and love on them in ways their families cannot.  I pray this child's mother gets the proper care she needs to get better, so that once again they can be reunited and grow together as a family.

I know I have spent a lot of time "venting" to you readers on this blog about the hard times at BG.  I want to thank you for your kind words, they were received with love.  I also want to apologize for speaking so much about the hardships I have faced.  Yes we have buried 5 children and walked through many painful moments, but not a day goes by when I don't lay my head on my pillow and am grateful for my time at BG.  The children that are in our care are not mine, but I love them as though they are.  They are complete gifts from God.  Today as I sat and played with the older kids for a while, my heart was overjoyed in the laughter and energy that they have.  Above all, they are children.  Children who need love, food, a playground and snuggles.  They are children who need to know that they don't need to worry about life, because their family is taking care of them.  We are a family at BG, but unfortunately we are not the family they deserve.  I rejoice when a child is matched and adopted into a family that will be able to care for all their needs.  I rejoice when a child is reunited with a family member that will love and care for them.  I rejoice that God has this all worked out and that I don't have to worry about tomorrow.  I rejoice that I can take time each day to be grateful for the journey I have walked through the past 5 months because it is shaping me into the person God has created me to be and it is showing me the love and compassion that God has for all His people.