BUT, first let me begin by saying, I really don't like to call him my son-in-law...IT, for personal reasons seems so impersonal. I like to call him,
'Russie'. Reason being, because it has a hop, skip and a jump to it when it rolls off my tongue. That name basically defines how I see him embrace LIFE and his FAMILY. The 'Russ' part of 'Russie' has the ring of depth, maturity, insight, wisdom, humility and strength that I have witnessed in him throughout the approximate 15 years I have known him. Those attributes combined together for me spell out: R=Resilient, U=Unwavering, S=Sensitive, S=Strength, I=Integrity, E=Enthusiastic = RUSSIE
Entry 1 on Life & Family
Russie's Entry
For those tagged in this note, whether adoptive families I respect greatly or friends who walked Zoe's journey with us, hoped you'd be encouraged by this today. Julie ... thought this went right along with your post about transformation today :o)
In almost every way, today is ordinary. But while driving to work this morning, I realized that today is something particularly special. Four years ago, a sick and broken little 7 year-old girl was grafted into my family through adoption. Today, that little girl is 11 and she leaving me for 2 weeks to go minister to people that she can UNIQUELY relate to - impoverished indians in South Dakota.
This is Zoe in Guatemala when we first met her - she's wearing the Christmas dress we bought her
For many girls her age, this would simply be another trip, but for Zoe this is so much different - it's a milestone of restoration for a girl who faced a childhood of neglect, abuse, sickness, extreme poverty, days without food, mass death through natural disaster and child labor. For my Zoe, today begins a pilgrimage back to her sorest place and past. She will wrestle through memories of her pain and the loss of her childhood as she connects with people in similar circumstances. She will face her past head on and her mother and i will not be there with her. She may be too young still to recognize the significance of this or what lies beyond that door, but i am confident that she is now ready to face it.
For me, today i realized a tremendous blessing of adoption. Once again, i'm shown that adoption has little to do with what I can do for my children, but what God shows me through it. In only 4 years, i have watched a resiliant girl overcome untold odds and today, she is restored ... not in the way that she doesn't hurt, but in that the pain and fear that once reflected in her eyes has been replaced with a calm softness. Today, her brokenness is not a weakness ... it's an asset that helps her connect with and minister to other broken people in a way that I cannot.
Zoe with her sisters
It wasn't an attractive process watching all of the pain that went into her come pouring back out onto us. But today ... today ... it just hit me that God has succeeded again where the world has failed. A girl with every excuse to harbor bitterness has grown perhaps the softest, most sincere and biggest heart i know. While He put Zoe in our care, He did not leave the job of restoring her to us. Instead, He is restoring US through restoring her. This realization has made an ordinary day quite special.
For all of you who have adopted or will adopt, i hope that this will be your blessing too. Thank you Zoe for this gift. You are a blessing, INDEED!
