Living a transformed life

She had always wanted a little girl.  It's not that she didn't love her boys, but she had always wanted a little girl.  So she and her husband began the process of adoption, seeking a baby girl from China.

Anyone who has followed this path to parenthood knows that it is arduous and expensive.  Reems of paperwork, delays upon delays and costs.  Now these two people had big hearts filled with compassion but money......not so much.  During the long delays they saved and scrimped to gather the money needed, It was clear that the time would come before the money was enough.

So she went through the house and gathered anything non-essential; anything that could fetch a price and had one huge garage sale.  It was all she needed; she could now buy her plane ticket to Seattle to meet her little girl for the first time.

Amanda was not the name given to her in the foundling home where she lived for 18 months, but it was the name Mom and Dad had chosen.  Stepping off her plane from NY, Mom raced to the gate where she would meet Amanda for the first time.  For Amanda it had already been a harrowing day.  She had been taken from her home by a stranger, ridden in an airplane for 11 hours, and then, in this last transfer, was literally handed over to yet again another stranger at the airport.  Just like that:  here she is....and the first stranger disappeared to be replaced by this strange smelling, strange sounding woman.  Amanda was having none of it.  She was inconsolalbe........all the way from Seattle to NY.

As the hours in the plane passed with this loud, crying, impossible to please baby, Mom offered her prayer to the Lord she had trusted on every step of the  journey.  "Please let this plane crash".  Mom was sure she had made the biggest mistake of her life.

Dad and the two big brothers met them all at the airport.  By now, Amanda wouldn't allow anyone other than Mom to touch her.  In fact, she slept on top of Mom for the next 3 months, forcing Dad to find sleeping quarters elsewhere.  The first 8 months together was a study of fortitude and the power of love to bring new life.

Amanda is a beautiful, bright, faithful young woman.  I officiated at her wedding.  She made Mom a grandmother 6 years ago.  She has a life just like most of ours.....and yet, a far journey from the foundling hospital in Beijing 36 years ago.

It took sacrifice, determination, courage and love to bring into being this transformed life.  God couldn't do it without a couple known as Mom and Dad.....and Mom and Dad couldn't do it without God.

That is what is known as a transformed life.