Since we last joined each other I have done some reading. Much of it has been magazine and Internet articles, but I have also begun reading two books. One is "The Essential 55" by Ron Clark and "The Quest For Character" by Charles Swindoll. I will comment on these as I get further into them. If you are in education, I hear that Ron Clark's books are phenomenal. So far he is right on target. This was a must read according to my aunt (she gave me the book) so I thought I would give it a chance.
A lot of my reading has been about adoption. Bryan and I plan to adopt internationally, so I have been looking for as much info as I can find. Adoption has become a passion of mine over the last 4 or 5 years. I had never considered it before, but God ever so politely smacked me over the head with the thought one day as I was listening to the radio. It didn't take very long for God to move Bryan the same way. It breaks my heart to know that there are precious children out there with no one to dry their tears or to applaud and encourage them. What a blessing children are!!! I have never seen my Lord manifested more clearly than in the face of some of the many children that I have worked with.
Just last week I was faced with one of those precious ones. At school I received a call from DSS saying that they were sending a child to register. He was in their custody and they were allowing him to live temporarily with a family member. When he walked in the door all you could see were his perfect white teeth. He was so happy to have a new start. The little boy was sooo cute, sweet, and friendly. He was whisked away by a counselor to have a placement test. After about 30 minutes he returned with her to the main office and he was quite proud of himself. It almost seemed that his goal was to add a little sunshine to our day. Mission Accomplished!! He entertained us for the next 15 -20 minutes as the Principal worked on placing him in a classroom. In a room full of women, he was definitely the star. We couldn't resist telling him how cute and smart he was. He insisted that he had taught himself his shapes and colors. This precocious little fella just may have. Soon he was escorted down the hall to the Kindergarten class chosen for him. I am most certain that his two teachers picked up where we left off with the doting.
One of the other ladies in the office was going over his paperwork and saw the DSS documentation. It absolutely broke my heart to hear what this poor baby had been dealing with in his five short years of life. He certainly deserved a new chance at life and all the doting a boy can take. Later in the week his teacher came to us and shared with us about her time with him. The first day, she walked him to the bus and made sure that he was safely inside and that the driver knew where to take him. The sweet little one looked up at her and said, "this has been the best day of my life." The next day before loading the bus he told her that he loved her.
The best day of his life... He just came from DSS. He is in the custody of an agency, not a person, an agency. How could this possibly be the best day of his life? Oh, to have the heart of a child. Each day is new and yesterday doesn't matter. All I could think about was taking him home with me and giving him a real family. A family that would love and protect him. A family to guard his heart and show him why each day is new.
I can't wait for the day that God blesses me with the one that will come home with me. It is such a wonderful reminder to me of how he loves me and how he adopted me. I can't think of any better example of what he has done for me than the gift of adoption.
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