So, anyways, as we were talking the other night, I casually asked her about her friends in China. She gave me the usual, "I don't remember." So, I prompted her with a couple of specific names including Ling Jian, her special nanny. She looked right at me and blurted out, "Joy no like that . . . I like Mommy!" My tears came instantly. I immediately clung to her and wrapped her up in my arms. My heart was breaking for my daughter. She was having a memory of a place that she did not want to be. Yet, my heart was also bursting with overflowing love for this child, my child. In the only words she could find to express it . . . she was saying that she is happy here with me, her mommy. She identifies with me. She wants to be with me. She was well cared for in the orphanage in China, and she did have little friends who she was obviously fond of. But she does not want that life. Nothing takes the place of family. Every night she prays and thanks God for each family member individually and then her "whole family". It is simply precious! She is mamas girl!
Adoption is a beautiful thing . . . a gift . . . a blessing! Yet it does not come without pain. Every adoption begins with a sad story, a story of sacrifice. And every adoption is a story of redemption and love. I want to always be able to talk to our girls openly and honestly about their stories. Each one is unique, yet similar. I pray that they will be able to see the love of their heavenly Father in the good plan He has for their lives . . . and that plan includes adoption. When the difficult questions someday come, I will trust in the one who has the answers.
"Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know." Jeremiah 33:3
