"Final" trip

J: We are here, in the Eastern European town where Ryan was born and spent the first 5 months in the hospital, and where the 2 orphanages he has lived in for the last 5 years of his life are.  This is our second and "final" trip…unless the Lord has more children for us hereJ.  (I have learned to never say “never”.)  Lord willing, we will be taking Ryan home in a little over a week.  What an answer to prayer, so many prayers lifted up by so many people; even way before we thought about adopting again, considered adopting a child with special needs, heard about Reece’s Rainbow, knew about Ryan…people were praying.  God is the one behind all of this and He is showing His power in amazing and wonderful ways!  Just knowing that He has changed my heart to desire to do this is evidence of His great power.  Fear, desire for comfort, dreading the unknown, materialism, and being a control freak…those things almost prevented me from experiencing this blessing, and the huge blessing of Ryan being my son- But God’s love, forgiveness and power are greater than all of my sin, and I am thankful that is the case, that that is reality.

Today yet again, more prayers were answered; here is just a small window into the day.  We had to take Ryan to an office 2 hours away to get his passport pictures taken, and then yes, 2 hours back.  The longest Ryan has been in a car is about 15 minutes.  At one point in our trip, I thought, the Holy Spirit Himself must be holding Ryan; for sure at the very least He was answering prayers.  Ryan sat next to me and played with 3 small toys for almost a whole hour.  I haven’t even seen him stay in the same spot and be interested in a toy for longer than 2 minutes.  Later he took a nap- my first time seeing him sleep; so beautiful and precious.  He did great, the whole trip, the whole time. My heart was filled with so much joy and love for him and with Thankfulness to God.  And I, in the back seat of a small car for 4 hours, no lunch, on not a lot of sleep, on a hot day without air conditioning… I did not even have a hint of car sickness- that is a miracle.  For those of you who know me, I often get car sick just coming home from central teaching on Sunday if I don’t get my lunch down in time.  And the blessings continued to flow from there.  What a good day!

Thank you for praying for us, as you can read and hopefully soon see with your own eyes, God surely has a good plan for Ryan, and all of us too.  We are so thankful that we can be a part of it and that you are too!

Oh yeah, and of course when we picked him up this morning Ryan was wearing a PINK shirt- again.  But, I was ready, I had packed a red shirt and navy shorts (and they fit!) so he had his pictures taken in that.  Whoa, that was a close call.  He would have had to wait another 5 years to renew his passport and get out of that pink shirt if mama hadn’t been there to save the day.  He looks much more masculine in boy clothes.  He is handsome!