Love Never Failes: Day 3: Carrying out the call

On Saturday, January 16, our day started out with a blessing. The hotel that we are staying in is one of the "go to" hotels for adoptive families. They arrive late on Fridays so the Saturday morning breakfast bar is quite crowded. All adoptive families, no matter what their child's province is, end their process here in Guangzhou because the US consulate is in this city. Because Talia is from this province, we get to stay here the entire 2 weeks therefore we get to see alot of families. We met many families today at the end of their process. They will be leaving on Wednesday or Thursday to go back home. We were eating during breakfast and one by one American families came in with their Chinese children. ..blind children, children in wheelchairs, babies, cleft palate children ... I got so emotional seeing this beautiful sight as these families were carrying out the call to care for the orphan. I also saw many of the families praying together before they ate. My heart was bursting with emotion. And to top it all off, I recognized a child that I had seen before!!!!! No joke!! In 2011, our family visited an orphanage for blind children. We got to visit many blind children while we were there and sure enough, one of the same boys that we saw in 2011, was being adopted this week and I got to see him again. MIRACLE!!!! In 2011, our group prayed that the children would find their forever families. For God to give us the gift of allowing us to see this answer to our prayer, blessed my heart to tears! God used that trip to a blind orphanage in 2011 to open my eyes more toward adoption. He had already started with me after watching some close friends adopt. (THANK YOU ISAACS AND RAYMONDS FOR YOUR OBEDIENCE THAT MINISTERED TO ME) I had NO intention of ever adopting because of money, my age, my deep wound of losing my ability to have children in 2003, and it was just too hard. Well, God had other plans for us. (And I say US because it wasn't just my idea. I was actually the last one to get on board with the idea. )He called us to care for the orphan just like he is calling all Christians. Now that might mean something different for you (adoption, fostering, supporting, advocating, helping) ,but we are ALL called to care. I still am an older mom (although my skincare business helps me look younger 😆), I still need funding, the scar is still there of my trauma in 2003, and it still is too hard (Toby is in trouble as I'm writing this), BUT GOD is giving us the strength we need everyday. (Lord, I need more on Monday.)
After breakfast, David and I took turns going to the workout room. That felt good to do that!!! We took another walk in the rain again and ended up at KFC. It was not the greatest chicken, but the fries were good. We also went to the local Walmart and the mall. We came back to the room and read, played, watched the weirdest Chinese kids show that made no sense, and just hung out together.
In the evening, we decided to eat dinner in the hotel to avoid the cold rainy night. WRONG CHOICE! We ate at a restaurant that looked like the rainforest cafe, but we felt like we paid a little too much for what we got. Oh well, lesson learned... We all fell asleep around 8:00pm. That's a first for this night owl! Talk at ya tomorrow. Our Gotcha day is Monday here in China, but it will be during the night Sunday for you all back on America. 2 more days!!!! I feel like I'm in a dream!