Imagine you sponsor a little girl somewhere overseas, and you get to spend three weeks with her, and she was calling you "mother" within days, and never wanted to leave your side. Imagine four amazing, beautiful, sweet teenage girls taking you shopping and swimming, and showing you around a wonderful city in which after seeing it was love at first sight. Imagine the sweetest teenage boys you've ever known whose mother abandoned them, and whose father they barely speak to, begging and literally praying that you wouldn't have to leave. Imagine spending two days with a woman who has been through and seen more than anyone I've ever known, yet is still so loving, caring and generous. Now imagine having to leave all of that, and come back to the stress of finding a job in a terrible economy, and having to find a new place to live within a month.
It hasn't been easy.
And through it all, all I know to do is to focus on Him. No matter what comes up, that is all the direction I'm getting. There is a certain peace that "passes all understanding" that certainly comes and goes, but I am amazed at how I've been handling things. Something I've realized is, if I'm never in need, I wouldn't ever need God. And if I didn't go through challenges, I wouldn't have the opportunity to live out my faith. You know that cliche saying, "everything happens for a reason"? I believe it. And I'm not going to worry, because worry is a lack of trust in God. I know I will go back someday, and see all my beautiful friends and now family that I have there. Until them, they are in my heart and in my prayers every day.
