She Knew She Was Home

 Recently, we were able to make a trip home for a very special occasion.  We stopped by our old neighborhood park.  This place was one of Jillian's most favorite in the world at that stage in her life.  She was a swinger then.  She hasn't been into swinging like that for years, but here, in this place where she was a swinger, she was swinging and swinging just like she did when she was two and these were her stomping grounds.  This momma's heart knows that she knows when she is home.  I know she remembers these places where we overcame so much, and where light shown through her dismally dark world as she learned to live in our family.  These are the places where her heart, ever so slowly, opened up to receive our love.  These were the fields we ran with her, stared into her eyes, and just learned to be still together.  There is something so very sweet about being home with this baby where her life first began with us by her side.

 It is especially sweet to have Molly here now.  Those early days, nearly five years ago now, I longed to bring home more, but never dreamed we would actually do it.

 Seeing them all together, though they were gathered from different corners of China, as sisters in matching clothes playing here in this place makes my momma's heart fill with gratitude that God would bless me so!

 I remember Jillian, at two, climbing here for hours.

 Jilly's love of gravel was born in this very pit as she would spend hours raining the gravel over this giant tire.  She would watch it fall again and again.

We stopped on this hill many, many times as we played here.  Through snow, falling leaves, and rain we explored this park.  Now, we are so far from it as we live in another state, but it is still so near to my heart.  Beautiful memories were made here.  Moments that define me, and changed my life as I was able to reach my first beautiful Chinese treasure walking beside her here.  God restored her before my eyes in this neck of the woods, and it is so very special to walk with her here again!  We have all come a long way in the last two years since leaving this place.  We have added two more daughters, and continued to see God move in ways we never dreamed.  I can't wait to see where the next five years take us, but for now I long just to sit and savor these days together.