Orphan

A few days ago something very simple happened at our house. Esias picked up a baby doll, put it on his shoulder and rocked it. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. When my girls did this at this age I thought it was adorable. But when Zi Zi did this, I wanted to cry. My son, who laid in a bed hour after hour, month after month, not understanding the concept of a mother and child, or father and child...now here he stood beside me hugging a baby doll to his chest, rocking, patting, comforting. He knows parents now. He is no longer an orphan! Praise God.

Tonight another mini-miracle occurred. We took the kids to the play area at the mall to let them run off some steam. Now, a weird thing happens when God places a people on your heart. When God put Ethiopia on our hearts, we began to notice people who looked Ethiopian at church, at the mall, etc. Tonight, at the play area, we saw two very East African looking boys (beautiful, beautiful boys). We scanned the parents sitting around to see if there were other adoptive parents around. Hmmm. Suddenly, a little ways away we saw a woman who also looked East African. Dan is brave, so he scooped up Esias and approached the woman. The conversation went something like this:
Dan: Are those your boys?
Woman: Yes...
Dan: Are you from...Ethiopia?
Woman: No, but I am from a region near there.
Dan: What region are you from?
Woman: Eritrea. Is he [pointing to Esias] from Ethiopia?
Dan: Yes, we adopted him.
[at this point I can over and introduced myself to her as well. Her name is Abeba. I told her how much we enjoyed being over in Ethiopia]
Woman: I appreciate what you guys have done because I grew up as an orphan.
Shadley: Did you live in an orphanage? Or with family?
Woman: In an orphanage.
Shadley: Wow...
Woman: God bless you for what you're doing for this boy.
Shadley: God bless YOU for all you've been through!

It was just the most amazing conversation. Sometime I like to forget or pretend that Esias would have been ok without us...but the reality was he was an orphan. He is NO LONGER an orphan, he is my son. My beautiful, incredible, wonderful son.