There have been tons of questions and comments from all over about this mission trip. (Not all of the nice or kind.)
Explaining the purpose behind a mission trip to an orphanage in China has been challenging at times. Most people expect that there is some tangible purpose, like a building or some sort of manual labor that leaves behind evidence of our efforts. Other people expect that our trip would have a defined evangelical activity, like leading a vacation Bible school.
Last night as our team "met" for our last video conference chat over computer or iPad screens, we also wondered about what our impact will be on the lives of the children and staff with whom we get to spend our days in China.
After wrapping up with prayer time for all the craziness we are all feeling and experiencing in these final countdown days and hours, Miranda wandered into my bedroom for our typical post-call debriefing. (Yes, Gretchen, she lets me know everything I do wrong or forget!)…
…She puzzled over the tight rope balance between loving on the kids enough and too much. The reality is that we only have just a few days with the children! Communicating to their hearts their value and worth from the eyes of their Heavenly Father, and pouring as much of His love into their lives in the limited hours or minutes we have with them feels overwhelming. But Miranda also understands the problem these precious little ones face with repeated broken attachments as our family struggles daily attempting to help her sisters' heart heal. Falling in love and then leaving them behind…again.
How to reassure my daughter when my own heart is struggling?
Then I remembered a short video clip sent to me from a family that is waiting to bring a child home from the orphanage we will be visiting!
We sat and watch this precious little one dancing with bells to Chinese music playing in the background. So familiar to our family as we recalled the "Bell Dance" Peiwu's Chinese dance group preformed for the Year of the Snake celebration (2012).
Tears began to flow down Miranda's cheeks as I declared that this child and the family waiting is the reason we are going! And so many other children with families already waiting or the children with referral files waiting to be matched with their forever families!
We remember how precious and treasured any information about our girls was during the long months we waited for them to come home.
Pictures of Keziah from a mission group that visited in the summer of 2008 showing her with her Foster Mama and a baby in her care comforted us while we waited and Keziah's aching heart for the familiar when she came home. Stories and pictures from a homecoming reunion travel group that enjoyed time at the orphanage just 6 weeks before we left for China told of our happy silly girl, her infectious laughter, her sense of humor that defied any language barrier, her best buddy who was always by her side.
For Peiwu, we only received a few pictures and a four sentence update from her orphanage and poured over each word to discover any additional glimpse into the life of our little one. When flooding affected her home city during the summer we waited for Peiwu to come home, I followed updates from Half the Sky about the children at her orphanage. It was so hard to know that my daughter was so far away, and I could do nothing to help her, soothe her fears, or provide food when it was scarce.
This is one of the many reasons why we are going to China!
Realizing how important photos, video images, or our first hand experiences will be to the parents or potential parents of the children! Knowing that for some of these children not yet matched with their forever families that we could provide helpful information to calm fears and encourage a mama and baba to follow God's leading and His whispers to their hearts that this precious child is their son or daughter.
Miranda questioned for a moment how families might feel about our privilege to meet their child, to hold them, to hug them, to laugh and play with them while the parents waited?????
Oh how fleeting these doubts faded!
We know that we are so thankful for those who poured into our little girls' lives…their birth families…the nannies who cared for them…Keziah's foster family…and the families who shared their stories of our spicy, sassy sweethearts!
A short video clip from a waiting family reminded us both of the vision and the mission that draws our hearts to China…God's amazing love for all.
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