Trey
& Rosalee came to us not knowing how to play. We would sit them in the middle of the playroom and they
would stare at each other and then at us and then back at each other like “are
they thinking we’re going to do
something?” I told Chip I’d never met
a kid who couldn’t play. But turns
out playing is one of the bazillion benefits of a family.
When
Eli was born, we didn’t chart out age-appropriate occupational strategies and
exercises for him. We just lived,
and he just lived, and in God’s great design and mercy he’s a happy, healthy
four year old boy. But Trey &
Rosalee didn’t have the luxury of just living. They were institutionalized for their first two and four
years. Fundamental, brick laying,
cement pouring, this-is-who-you-will-be years. But you know who’s stronger than brick and harder than
cement?? God.
In
the book of Joel the Bible says He will give back the years the locusts have
eaten away. God will give
them back. Things that seemed to be gone forever, things that were
too late to learn, ridiculous to even hope for – they are not lost.
Trey
and Rosalee needed someone to walk the path to childhood with them. Like most thirty-somethings, I’ve
forgotten how to play. But at four years old Eli is smack in the middle of the
Kingdom of Play, and he’s giving them the grand tour. He’s teaching them to run with no destination, to laugh at
silly things, to laugh at nothing at all, to play. Exactly what they need.
One
of my current obsessions is Dr. Karyn Purvis. She’s a child-development guru, specializing in helping kids
from hard places (institutionalized kids definitely fit this category). One of the reasons I love Dr. Purvis is
because she’s all about hope. She thinks that no matter what a child has been through, there is always a way to help
them find the preciousness God created in them. I believe her.
Chip says that when he rocks Trey he prays that with every rock God is
chipping away the nights and nights of loneliness. I’m not trying to ignore the bigger issues of adoption in a
person’s life, but I can tell you that we are witnessing a great metamorphosis. Trey and Rosalee are
changing in front of our eyes.
They are becoming… children.
When
I was little I read a book called The Thief of Always. It was about a boy who got mad at his
parents and ran away to a place called Holiday House. He loved it there but got homesick after a few weeks and
wanted to leave. But what he
didn’t realize was that every day he spent in Holiday House was a year in the
real world, and if he were to return home everyone he loved would be dead.
The
enemy thought he was the Thief of Always for Trey and Rosalee, but he was
wrong. The title of Eternal belongs
to only one, and He is giving them back their past... and so much more.
I know what I’m doing. I
have it all planned out — plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to
give you the future you hope for.
Jeremiah 29:11
Jeremiah 29:11
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