When we adopted Kaitlyn a friend gave us a special gift. She gave us a blank journal with this inscription:
“Fill these pages with all the love, dreams, advice and wisdom you hold in your heart for Kaitlyn. Enjoy every moment.”
Over the last five years I have faithfully recorded (some of) my prayers for Kate, my hopes and my deep love for her. I pasted in an annual picture and I envision giving it to her someday. I want her to be able to read how I have prayed for her over the years, how God has answered those prayers, and how much joy she brought into my life.
Today I did something I have been thinking about since Nov 18th, but never seemed to have the time (or health) to do. I bought two new journals. One for Jon. One for Nick.
I spent some time today pasting in three pictures in each one. The first picture is the youngest one we have of each of them. Then in Jon’s journal I added a picture of him at age 2 and at 3. In Nick’s journal I added a picture at age 1 and at 2. (We have these early pictures thanks to Foster Nanny.)
Beside each picture I noted what was happening in our lives when the snapshot was taken. I chronicled how God moved us here, to the province and city where these boys were waiting for adoption. I noted how God answered ours and Kaitlyn’s prayers by sending us these two boys and I shared how although we didn’t know them we had been faithfully praying for them. It is amazing to look back and see how God answered our prayers over the years. We prayed our future children were safe and both were taken into care before safety became a concern. We prayed for a good foster home and they were placed in a GREAT foster home. We prayed they would feel loved and we have no doubt they were both loved greatly. God is good.
I look forward to filling the rest of the pages over the next days, months and years. One day, when they are older, they too will be given their journal and read about how much we love them, how much God loves them and how they were an answer to our prayers.