Orphan Sunday

While I sit here thinking about it, daddy took our little blessings with him to visit the Bass Pro Shop. :)

I don't have anything special planned for Orphan Sunday, but God blessed us with two very special little girls brought together by adoption, so I wrote these letters to them.

Dear Hannah, Thank you for not giving up on me. Those first moments in time when you stepped through my comfort zone and I became your mommy, nurse, advocate, and best friend, I wasn't always good at taking care of you, but you didn't seem to mind, you still cried for me and wanted me there. Thank you for an awesome pregnancy. I knew you were special when you moved inside me like a ballerina. I felt you dancing, a tiny princess you were, stepping on my soul, making my heart smile and longing to hold you in my arms. Your day of appearance came like no other, with speed you danced into my world, and when you looked into my eyes, you took my heart where it had never been before. I loved our first night together. You tried your best to find comfort at my breast, tiring easily you found rest in my arms. The journey was difficult for you, and about to get harder, you needed your rest, the easiest delivery for me was also about to get harder, we both needed our rest. (To learn more about Hannah's birth and delivery, please read my book, Chasing a Dream Where the Sunflowers Grow).

Dear Valeria (Lera), Thank you for allowing me to be your mom. I mess up a lot and don't always understand how to take care of you, but your hugs are the best and I love your sneaky ways to get what you want. I know you can't help it and sometimes I just have to laugh instead of cry because you mean no harm. It's not your fault you were born an orphan. Abandoned at birth, you never felt the comfort every child deserves being held in your mothers arms. I didn't know you then, but God knew you. You had to survive the best you could until we understood God had a plan and let us know we were your forever family. The years you waited, you learned to survive, taking comfort in the presence of strangers arms. Before we met you in Ukraine, Daddy and I prayed and prayed for God to hold you for us, until we could hold you for Him. To this day, you still love to be held and are not satisfied with a hug unless you are picked up, where your arms and legs wrap tightly around whoever is holding you. They are the best hugs! You so desperately need them, and I need them too (I love dancing with you in my arms when no one is looking, singing praises and giving thanks to Our God for bringing us together!), just hope when you grow as tall as me, I can still pick you up, or maybe you will be the one picking up me? I look forward to our life together. Thank you for teaching me I can do hard things. It wasn't easy adopting you, but so worth it. I am not who I used to be. You changed my heart. I don't want to stop loving you or the country you were born in. My heart weeps for the orphans we left behind. I know if Hannah had been born in your shoes she would have died, without hope. I know that because she lived, you are now with us.

Thank you God for my sweet angels who flew from heaven and whisked away my heart and made me a better me...Hannah and Valeria, you are my twins, and the prayers of a desperate mamas heart for something she didn't understand, but God knew all so well. Hallelujah! Let the name of the LORD be praised, both now and forevermore. Psalm 113:2