Ruby's Homecoming

Today was a day when a hundred faces widened in a smile and eyes shined a little brighter.  It's a day of Hope Fulfilled for a family...and for all the people who have been praying for Ruby to come home.  It came out of the blue - miraculously, with no explanation for the change of heart.  After being denied by the US embassy for weeks now, inexplicably, the embassy granted Ruby's parents their case..and their little girl will be home by next week.  How amazing and wondrous God is. 

So often adoption feels to me like trying to climb up the icy side of a mountain and not even knowing what the top of that mountain will bring.  You wade through paperwork and finances and fears and right when you think everything may begin to get easier, something happens that knocks the breath out of you.  And you fall down the slope and start trying to climb up again.   I took that backwards slide recently.   I thought that by now we would be meeting our little girl for the first time ...but things don't go according to my perfectly planned plan.  Our paperwork is held up at a regional judge's office somewhere in Ethiopia and so we are still waiting...and up until today I had no news as to how long we would be waiting.  I only have Callyrose's picture staring at me from my kitchen windowsill and 3 little voices asking me when their sister is coming home.

I've wanted to wallow in my disappointment and I have...but the truth is, I have too many other adoptive parents surrounding me with their own slippery slopes...and their great Faith in a God who carries us through our hurts, failed plans and seemingly uncatchable dreams.  These families are a testimony to me - Ruby's family is a testimony to me - they believe that God cares for "the fatherless" and that He can do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine."  On their bleakest days, when they feel like they have no belief left in them, their faith is most evident as they are still turning to God and crying out for Him to help them hold on. 

Today, we found out that we just need this regional judge to pass our case and then it will be submitted to the Ethiopian court hopefully within the same day.  If that happens, we should be traveling two-three weeks from that point.  So maybe we will get to meet our little girl by Thanksgiving or shortly thereafter.  In the meantime, I get to send a care package to her with Ruby's parents.  And they are going to hug her and shower her with kisses and love from us.  Recently, Ruby's mom gave me a book for Callyrose.  It makes me cry everytime I read it:

Wherever You Are

I wanted you more than you will ever know,
so I sent love to follow wherever you go.

It's high as you wish it.  It's quick as an elf.
You'll never outgrow it...it stretches itself!

So climb any mountain...climb up to the sky!
My love will find you.  My love can fly!

Make a big splash! Go out on a limb!
My love will find you.  My love can swim!

It never gets lost, never fades, never ends...
if you're working...or playing...or sitting with friends.

You can dance 'til your dizzy...paint 'til your blue...
There's no place, not one, that my love can't find you.

Just lift up your face, feel the wind in your hair.
That's me, my sweet baby, my love is right there.

In the green of the grass...in the smell of the sea...in the clouds floating by...
at the top of a tree...in the sound crickets make at the end of the day...
"You are loved.  You are loved.  You are loved," they all say.

My love is so high, and so wide, and so deep,
it's always right there, even when you're asleep.

If you're still my small babe or you're all the way grown,
my promise to you is you're never alone.

You are my angel, my darling, my star...
and my love will find you wherever you are.

-Nancy Tillman


SO thankful today for Hope Fulfilled.  For a beautiful little girl getting to come home and the light her story will bring to so many!