September 12, 2010

Jet Lag, Homecoming, and Thailand Retrospective

I tried to post a video the night before we left Thailand to come home, but it was larger than my other videos (over 6 minutes of footage) and the Internet speed kept causing the posting process to error out. Rather than posting an "old" video, I have created a new one that includes footage of our homecoming and of Anderson meeting family and friends.  I wanted to create a retrospective look at our entire trip from start to finish, so the new video contains some familiar scenes if you have watched the others I posted while we were in Thailand.

We have been home 10 days now, and it has taken us this long to recover from jet lag (we are about 90% recovered). We are all very grateful for our church family, our friends, and our families who have done so much to make our homecoming special. Our Life Group (aka Sunday School class or Sunday morning small group) has blessed our family in many ways and we love you all. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Thanks to all of our adoption fellowship friends, too! We thank God for His love and grace displayed in each of your actions.  To our families, we are so thankful for your love and prayers, and for the time you have taken to spend with us in these first precious weeks with our newest family member. Anderson has loved meeting his grandparents, cousins, aunts, and other extended family. And we look forward to seeing those of you who he has not met as of yet!

As we have welcomed Anderson, we remember his Gran who was so excited to meet him and just knew we would have him walking as soon as we got him home. Even when Gran was sick, she corrected Papa when he said they had 4 grandchildren between them.  She told him "No, we have 5...one is just not here yet."  Even though Gran won't meet Anderson here, we are confident that they will meet in Heaven one day. We are so thankful that she put his picture on the refrigerator and talked about him and was excited to meet him even before we were close to bringing him home.

I also think of my mom, who died before any of my children were born.  I know with every piece of my heart that if she were still here she would be more than proud of each of her grandchildren and pour herself into loving them and having fun with them.  She taught me so much about being a mother just by her example, and the childlike joy and wonder she displayed even as a "grown-up" are still a part of who I am as a mom to my kids.  Her love lives on in our family, and I am truly grateful that I had her as my mom for 20 years.

Anderson is adjusting amazingly well, and we all enjoy every moment we get to spend together as a family watching him grow and learn.  Alex and Aerin have settled into their new roles as "big sister" and "big, big brother" and Anderson loves to laugh and play with the big kids.  Please pray for Anderson's first major medical evaluation here in the U.S. which is scheduled for September 22nd.  We are very eager to hear what the doctors and therapists at the International Adoption Clinic have to say about his chances of learning to walk and the frequency and types of therapy he will need. 

I created this blog originally to keep our friends and family  updated on our adoption news and to share our journey with those who wanted to be a part of it. Thank you all for reading and praying and encouraging us throughout this process! God is faithful and good, and we pray that He will use our story and Anderson's story to bring glory to Himself.  This part of our journey (bringing Anderson home) is now complete, but our journey to be obedient to God's call upon our lives has just begun. I will leave this blog intact for a time as an archive of our journey to Anderson, but this post will be my last at this blog address. For those of you who are interested in continuing to read about our family, tune into http://tatertotslovinglearning.blogspot.com/
to read about everything from general family news to Anderson's progress to home school updates to our passionate desire to glorify God, share the Gospel, care for orphans, "defend the cause of the fatherless", and support adoption and adoptive families.

My heart is so full of gratitude and joy that I have to pinch myself sometimes, especially when I see my three smiling children playing together. I know very well that life is a strange mixture of peace and pain, sorrow and joy, difficulties and blessings.  I can say with all certainty that God is faithful when we doubt, gracious when we fail, and loving when we aren't at all lovable. May I say one last time THANK YOU to every family, every person, every group, who prayed, gave, loved, spent time, worked, contributed, encouraged, and admonished us during this journey.  We have seen God's grace displayed in each of you and are more than grateful for the way you have touched our lives and the life of our precious new son. It is our prayer that you will continue to care for orphans and support adoptive families as God has commanded us to in His word.  We love you and thank God upon every remembrance of you.  Hope you enjoy this last video.  All that I can say is "Hallelujah!"

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