Easter

For our family Easter week is a bit like the Marine Corps' hell week. It is stacked full of worship rehearsals, extra services, and multiple things that need to be done all so our church goers will be able to experience a meaningful Easter season. It is exhausting and exhilarating.

I say this so you will understand that this year was incredibly hard for me. But not because of any of the things I just mentioned, but because our son was not here with us to experience any of it. He was not sitting in bed while Steve read the Resurrection story, he was not waving a palm branch with his brother in church on Palm Sunday and singing "Hosanna!". I could not see him collecting eggs and consuming a pile of chocolate bliss. I could not hear my own adoption story through Christ without thinking of my son.

He was not here and I was heart broken.

This is something I have been battling since the day we got our adoption approval from China. It is a battle that will continue until he is in my arms. My hope is that this is the last Easter he will be away from us. This is my prayer.

But today my heart swelled. I saw pictures of Garrick decorating Easter cookies and eating them with his nannies and the other children. I will never be able to express to these ladies how thankful I am for loving and caring for him. For teaching him about Jesus. For making Easter special for him.
I will be grieving for his China mommies when he leaves and comes home to us. I know he will grieve leaving the life he has known. I know I will have to walk through that grief with him. It will be considerably hard.

But I have hope.

Just as God made us sons and daughters through the resurrection of Christ Jesus and imputed to us his righteousness and inheritance I can rejoice! In my own adoption and my son's earthly adoption. For he was lost and now has been found. He was once an orphan and is no more.

 http://www.youcaring.com/adoption-fundraiser/germany-family-adoption-fund/330417