Funny how God works...

Sunday's scripture in our Sunday School class - drum roll please!  - Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Um, excuse me, isn't this what I was talking about a few days ago??!!  Every time I turn around God is winking at me!!  I am loving it!  Our facilitator in class said as she was going over the lesson and saw the scripture, she knew she would need some tissue next to me. (I did not see the box, Linda. :-))  Most people that know me, know that I can cry at the drop of a hat!!  Some have even "made fun of me."  There are many reasons for these emotions...I come from a family of  "emotion." We all have the gift of "tears on the spot."  I am thankful for my tears, they are part of who I am. The deal is that I "FEEL" just about everything I hear or see...I put myself in others' situations...I can empathize with them. I cry with them, I laugh with them...I can hear a song and be that person in the story...I receive communion as if Christ is standing right in front of me giving me His body and Blood...I love that I can feel these things...it is gift that God gave to me and my family. (I haven't researched it, but a Catholic friend of mine said at one time that those kinds of tears are from the Holy Spirit. I'll buy that!!) Each one of my boys have it in their own individual ways......Michael Stephen XueFa, from what I have read, has these same qualities. Some of the writings about him are, "He has good adaptability", "His foster mother caught a cold and said ' Mum, please sit down and take a rest.' He is a kind boy, he knows how to treat people. One of the teens that visited in the 2008 video said, "I will miss him. He is the most adorable boy in the world. He may be a tiny person, but that doesn't stop him from doing anything. I remember how his face lit up as he smiled and ran towards Zoe and me to offer us water from his own cup. I remember how he was fascinated by my earrings and smiled and held my hand when I sat next to him." He says I love you a lot! He loves to learn. I can't wait to see him and hold him!  I pray he will allow it...By the time he comes to us we will be at least the 5th place he has lived!  That's an enormous amount of transition in 10 years!!  I pray his attachment is not too hard on him, leaving everything he knows, coming to a culture that is completely different from what he has always known...the changes are so many I can't even list them all...I pray people will understand as we may have to do things differently and may not be "age appropriate" as most would think of a 10 year old....someone who has lived in an orphanage and in foster care will more than likely act younger than their chronological age...it is okay. He can be who he is and we will guide him and work through it...all of us, as a family...this will be his home, and probably as far back as he can remember, he has not had a place to call his home.  We are so excited that he will finally have that special place...HOME...that place with a mother and father and 3 brothers to love him, forever and always...I look forward to being able to sing, "Love you Forever" to him...We have missed the beginning 2 parts in that book, but one day, he will be that teenager (yikes!), and after that I will be able to drive across town in the middle of the night and pick up that Man and rock him back and forth, and back and forth, and sing, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living, My baby you'll be." Thanks be to God!