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Gracie and Eli update
As of yesterday, Gracie was officially in R.E.M.I.S.S.I.O.N!!!!! A beautiful day to be celebrated for sure. We are praising the Lord that she was born in this day and age where there is a treatment. Gracie asked if I would make her a countdown chain for the 5 years she will have to be on oral chemo drugs. I laughed. Could you imagine that link? 1,825 links might take me a while to make. The truth is no one has a magic date that she will be done. We have to play it by ear. The doctors said five years at the beginning. Now they say at least 3 but probably more. No one knows for sure what to do to ensure that she won’t have another relapse. We will do all that we can to keep her as healthy as we can.
Gracie has reached $1,144 with her Lenten campaign for Love Without Boundaries. I think she might actually hit her goal. I know there are many people holding onto their change until the end of the month. It will be fun to see the final total. Gracie talked at our church this past Sunday and she did wonderfully. It amazes me that she was brave enough to get up there with a microphone and her slideshow and talk about orphans and Love Without Boundaries. She did pretty good for the first time. She has asked to speak at other churches but so far all their answers have been no. That has been pretty discouraging for her. We thought since we knew people at these churches we might have a chance to spread the word about other ways to help orphans and how Love Without Boundaries works. Alas, it wasn’t to be. We explained that we didn’t want the church to sponsor her and that we just wanted people to donate change if they felt led to do so. Unfortunately, we got letters back talking about how they have missionaries and they couldn’t help her. These letters stated that as a church, they choose to do a couple big things really well and not do little things. It makes me wonder if tons of people are asking the church for money or if they don’t want to set a precedent that you can. Who knows?
We are all excited that Eli’s paperwork can finally be brought to China’s attention for review sometime after the 15th of March. It will take a miracle to have them let us adopt four at once. It has never been done, but we are all for precedents being set and miracles happening which show the glory of the Lord. Last night as I was going to sleep I heard Ben saying, “I am going to be Jake (the pirate) and Eli will be Cubby. We are gonna have fun. We play and play.” For those of you who don’t have little ones, there is a new show called Jake and the Neverland Pirates. It is Ben’s favorite. Ben says he is absolutely positively sure that Eli will be coming home with us this time. I just hold my breath. I understand that miracles can happen and God will deserve all the credit for this one, but I also understand not everything works out the way we think it will or hope it will. I just don’t want my little boy’s heart to be broken. We have purposely tried not to speak about Eli very often so as to not get Ben’s hopes up, but Ben will not let us forget. He prays for his didi and he dreams about his didi. He is certain Eli is his didi.
I love how things have lined up for Eli. It has been an amazing journey from the very first time I saw his sweet face. From the very first moment I saw him, I have thought I was his mama. It is so hard to explain that to people. How can you put into words the fact that a mere picture can take your breathe away? That from just seeing that picture you would go to the ends of the earth to protect him and bring him home. That you cry at night because you know he is still in an orphanage, with a heart defect, and you can’t even hold him and make him feel safe? How do you explain that you know, just as surely as if he had grown in your womb, that this child is yours? I hold on to the fact that my heart has been taken over by the sweetest little boy, who I long to hold, and I trust that God has led us to him. Someday soon I hope to be able to share his picture with all of you.
As always, thank you for keeping our children in your prayers. I know that every prayer reaches God’s ear and every prayer helps. We are humbled that you would consider keeping us in your prayers.