Much More

The boys received a request for a play date the other day and it gave me a good laugh. Setting up such events never occurs to me because we are a play date. 10% of the kindergarten class lives in our house and they are the best of buddies.

Sweet Boy is doing so well. These pictures were taken at our favorite park, this weekend. Last year, he spent the first several trips sitting by me, unmoving, on the bench.

He was numb - too anxious to care - too troubled to try.

Now, I watch him run to the top and race down the slides. Sometimes he is too quick and skids down the rock wall, only to pick himself up and try it, again. Anyone watching would move on from the scene. He looks like every other boy...but I know the truth.

He is much more.

Our adoption finalization hearing is next Friday and it overwhelms my heart to think about handing this boy forever. We've known it from the start and he knows it, now, but hearing the judge say the words will open a new chapter to his story.

We will never erase the scars, but we will exchange his case number for a last name. The people that come into his life will stay. The home he grows in will be safe. The family that loves him will point to destiny.

In moments of such rich reward, I look back and thank God for every piece of the passage. The days of defeat, tears of frustration, and broken calls to heaven, sure up this victory in a way that blots the past and prompts me to ask, Lord, what now...or perhaps who?

It only takes but one breath of rest for our souls to surge to order, pick up the fight, and carry on.