Community

This week I have walked around with a lump in my throat.  Tears right behind my eyes, ready to fall with the slightest emotion.  But here's the thing, it has been a good week, an amazing week.  I keep looking around me at this life God is creating, it reminds me of a quilt, each unique block when sewn together creates something beautiful.  I feel it, my cup so full, running over with joy, with contentment.

For years I have been praying for God to provide for our family what it was missing.  To bring to us Korean people who would love us, who would walk this road with us, who would care about my children.  For years I have prayed for families that look like ours to come into our life, for my children to not wonder why they're the only adopted children they know or why they are the only one without a white face.  Recently God has begun to teach me about community, I have begun to pray that He would make that a reality, that our life and our home would be filled with the body, a place where deep relationships can be formed.

It took me a long time to realize that she was the answer to my prayers, it wasn't until I realized how much she needed us that I saw our need for her.  Watching her set the table or help us make dessert,  is the answer to the prayer I've never put into words, the longing He placed in my heart long ago.  Last night she taught me how to bow correctly and told me that Chloe has a Korean accent.  As my children grow they will have a face that looks like theirs around the dinner table, they will hear her whisper Korean to them, her presence will change their lives.

Then this week I met her, I was both surprised and expectant, deep down knowing she would come, another mother like me, another family like ours.  And no matter how I tried on that day we met the tears kept sneaking up.  Before I knew her name I knew her heart and that was enough to know I had made a dear friend.  To have another friend who's walking this path of adoption, one I can reach out and touch, one who will be a daily part of our lives, a gift from a loving Father.

Always there is the mix of students and families, Americans and Internationals, new believers and mature ones that fill up my home each Sunday evening.  It is the day I look forward to most of all, to hear about their week, to praise God for the answered prayers, to be able to tell them I need their prayers, always I need their prayers.  Their wisdom on His word teach me and point me to the truth.  But most of all their laughter stays with me and it makes me lighter, carrying me through to the next week.

This week I've seen my life for the beautiful quilt it has become.  Solid in my chest I feel it, rising up as a lump in my throat.  This is the life He has created for me, an answer to the prayer he put on my lips, a life abundant, a life in community.