Grace Abounds

From the pen of the lovely Rachel:

It's hard to believe our baby girl is just about one. What a year it's been--full of surprises, challenges, miracles and God's great grace.

This year has held so many changes for me, the way I live life, my perspective on things, even emotions I feel over things that I've experienced before but now feel in a different way.

It was like that when I first became a mother. No longer could I watch shows and movies about kidnapping (read: Taken) because all of a sudden I could imagine and feel what the parents in the show were feeling and I couldn't take it. It was no longer entertaining; instead, it was horrifying.

Right around Christmas time, I sat down to watch some TV while nursing Jael and Micah put our little (crazy) knights to bed. There was a special on with Roma Downey for Operation Smile, an organization that travels to remote villages and operates on children with cleft lip that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford it. They asked viewers for support and showed mothers and fathers who had walked miles to help their children, many of whom were outcasts and potentially could die without the help.

I couldn't turn away--and as I sat there, I cried. I cried with the mothers and fathers themselves weeping for their children who were turned away because the need was too great and the workers too few. I cried with mothers and fathers handing their children over to total strangers who would operate on their precious little loves. And I cried with the mothers and fathers who saw their children for the first time after surgery, who had hope for their precious little one's lives for the first time.

I cried, not just for them, because that could have been me.

What if I wasn't in America? What if Jael had been born in a poor, remote village? That would have been me, the crying parent that appeared in front of me on the TV.

We are SO fortunate!

During Micah's unemployement this past winter, one of the things we talked about many times was suffering. Without stooping too far into the pity jar, it had been quite the half year with Jael's birth, our new life with Jael coupled with Micah's unemployment, which was really challenging particularly on an emotional level.

At the same time, I kept coming back to two questions-- what does suffering actually look like? and --do I suffer personally? I came to the conclusion that we weren't really suffering, in part because we live in America.

Here I was, with a medically complex child (to say the least), an unemployed husband, and two other small children and yet we still had a home and medical care and food.  We knew where our next meal was coming from, and we knew that all around us were people who would pray and serve and help. It helped me realize just how fortunate our little family is to live in America with our baby girl and her disability. Life would not look very good for her elsewhere in our world.

It's with this knowledge and understanding that my heart as been softened for those precious babes who are medically complex and lacking the resources for medical care or education. And it's organizations like Chunmiao Little Flower that have my attention.

On July 21st a friend posted on my facebook a picture of an adorable tiny little baby with the caption "Ten day old Min arrived this week. He's a tiny little guy who weighs just 4 lbs (1810g). Min needs casting for his club feet; we suspect his diagnosis is arthrogryposis (AMC)."

What??

Here was a tiny, medically complex baby, abandoned in China, and in need of medical intervention.

And hope.

This little guy had found his way to an amazing organization in China that takes in medically complex babies who have been abandoned, and provides for their medical care, education and the love they need.

It's called Chunmiao Little Flower. (http://chunmiaolittleflower.org/)

I spent days pouring over the website and reading all I could on this new-to-me organization. Just looking at the sweet little faces of tiny babies who now have hope in their lives. Wow. Just WOW!

As a mother of such a child, I have a very new understanding of these little ones plight and I THANK GOD for this group who loves these children, fights for their best, cares for them, and gives them hope.

As Jael turns one this year, we are preparing to celebrate the amazing little girl she is and to thank all  who have helped us love her, care for her, and fight for her best. And we're going to celebrate just how fortunate that we are by helping to support Little Flower Project provide the same care that Jael receives now for those who have no one to advocate for them.

Grace abounds -- to us and to you.