A Good, Good Sunday

Except for the extraordinarily early waking that seems to have taken over my normal non-morning self, this was a Good, Good Sunday.

The Boss woke at 5 a.m. After tossing and turning for 45 minutes he got up. Well, that woke me and I bolted right up out of bed after him, thinking that he could only be up so ridiculously early on a cool cozy Sunday morning for what must be a very important reason. Like the sump pump failing after last night's final rain storms. (It's happened before, that's not just my crazy, before-coffee insanity in action!)

I padded down the stairs to find him on the couch watching CNN. I mumbled something about the basement and sump pump. He replied, "No, I just couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about things we still need to pack." Humph. Grumble. Well, welcome to my life. For. The. Past. THREE. WEEKS!

I curled up on the couch and dozed off between NFL analysis of the upcoming season, weather reports about the courting dance on which Hanna seems to be leading Ike, and in-depth interviews with Ob*m*'s closest campaign staff. Finally, at 8 a.m. I roused myself to take a shower and get the gang moving toward Sunday services.

At church, the atmosphere was celebratory. After spotty crowds during the whole month of August, it was great to see everyone back and getting into the swing of things. It was sweet fellowship, both connecting with church family who have been out of town and worshiping together with my four kids. (The Boss worships too, he just joined us late as he was ushering.)

Pastor Brother-in-law called The Gang forward as a family so that he, my Li'l Sis, and our church elder could lay hands on us and send us out with their blessing and prayer coverage. He said some beautiful things about choosing to open our hearts to follow God's plan for building our family through adoption. He read James 1:27:

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

Then he spoke briefly about the way the world could defile our pure religion in this adoption journey. The thoughts he spoke are all things we've heard over and over through this whole experience:

"You already have four children, what could you possibly want with more?"
"How on earth are you going to support 5 children?"
"You already got your girl, why do you need another?"
"How on earth will you pay for college for 5 kids?"

Yup, we've heard it all. And then some. I'll never forget the day, early in the paper-chase of this journey, when an older, obviously hurting and angry man stopped by our first yard sale. All over the place the kids had plastered signs indicating that the proceeds of this sale would be help to fund our journey to China. Such hate and racism spewed from his mouth that I actually sent the younger kids inside to shield them from his words. I thanked him for coming and wished him well on his other yard-sale stops. Kind of a "thanks for coming, thanks for going. NOW" thing. Nicely as I could muster.

But Pastor Brother-in-law was right. This is our calling. This is the daughter of our hearts, the one the Lord has led us to. The child He has given us to love, nurture, and train to follow Him. The daughter He created for The Gang. This is our journey to walk out the faith that the Lord has called us to. It was overwhelming and inspiring to know that our church family is standing behind us, covering us in prayer and anxiously awaiting the day they all get to meet her and welcome her to her big extended family. We felt really blessed by the joy and support.

After service, we came home to big cheese-y strombolis (it now takes 3 or 4 to feed this gang!) and a sound trouncing of the Rams by our beloved Eagles. Over half-time, I gave Shaggy his blogging lesson (see below!), complete with how to post pictures if I can't do it in China. The little ones finished their day with a dip in the chilly pool while the big boys went to youth group. I've been plugging through my To Do list and am finally making head way on it. It's actually getting shorter instead of longer!

All in all, it was a Good, Good Sunday.

At the left here is Aidan's first Eagles hoodie. Is it not THE CUTEST thing you've ever seen? It was a very special gift from a friend who knows how much my family loves our Eagles.