Orphans

Tom Davis recently posted this on his blog, speaking about the recently-released film “Orphan.”

 

I‘ve seen the previews for this movie, and it’s appalling.  And frightening.  And it hurts my heart that this is the way Hollywood has chosen to portray orphans – precious children, children who often don’t have a voice, children who are ostracized and often forgotten.  So in contrast to Warner Bros. dark portrayal, let me share a few stories of how orphans have brought joy to my life.

 

Some of the first interactions I had with orphans were in Jamaica, at an orphanage for children with severe mental and physical disabilities.  Even though we were only with these kids for a week, they impacted my life SO much.  Most of them couldn’t walk, talk, feed themselves, or really do anything.  They were utterly helpless – we fed them, bathed them, changed their clothes, carried them around, played games with them, read them Bible stories…and the list could go on and on.  But one thing these kids could do was smile.  Their faces would light up as they began to recognize our team.  They would have grins spreading from ear to ear because they knew we were there just to love on them.  And their joy was contagious.

 

The summer after my Jamaica trip, I spent two months in India, and had the privilege of working in three different orphanages.  While I could pick out hundreds of individual moments to share, one of my favorite memories comes from my team’s time in Delhi, at the Emmanuel Orphanage there.  On one of our last nights we decided to have a talent show, with acts from both our team and the kids.  Some of the kids reproduced skits we had performed for them earlier that summer, some of the kids had learned DRIMES from our team, a choir had been formed of some of the best singers from the orphanage and they sang a song in English and one in Hindi (their native language), and a few of the kids made up their own routines or performed songs themselves.  The one act that got to me the most was a group of kids who did an interpretive dance to a popular (English) worship song.  I have no idea if they even really knew how the song translated or what the words were that they were dancing to, but they were so full of joy in dancing before their Creator – it was amazing.

 

There are so many more stories I have of how orphans have touched my life, but perhaps the story that’s touched me the most is the one that has been more ongoing than the rest.  A little over four years ago my family made the decision to adopt some kids from Russia – at that point we had no idea how many kids would be joining our family, how old they would be, or when this would actually take place.  Well, fast-forward less than a year through a bunch of paperwork and two trips to Russia, and my parents came home with four wonderful kids who were no longer orphans.  And over the last three and a half years that they’ve been home with us, through the good times and those times that were a little more rough, God has been faithful.  I couldn’t imagine my life without these very special kids in it now.  Vlad is now 17, almost ready to get his driver’s license, entering his third year of high school, playing tennis, becoming a typical teenage boy who likes his playstation, and is developing in to a great guy.  Kristina is 16, starting her second cross-country season, becoming quite the social butterfly, and just a couple weeks ago stood up in front of her whole church to profess her faith in Jesus Christ (that part pretty much had me bawling).  Angelina is 13, a true middle-schooler, who wants to be involved in everything, has a lot of friends, and is caught in between wanting to be a kid and a grown-up.  And Nikolai is 12, just about to start middle school, who loves being outdoors and active and who has the ability to make anyone laugh with his funny antics and witty comebacks.  And you know what?  There is so much joy in these kids – their faces light up when mom makes special treats, they get giddy when they’re allowed to hang out with friends, they grin from ear to ear each time I get to go home and visit them.  And every time I think about my family, I think about how blessed we are to have been given the opportunity to take in kids who otherwise wouldn’t have much of a future.  There are so many things I can’t begin to think about taking for granted anymore, after these kids have come in to my life.  And so many more things that I am that much more grateful for because of what God has done in my family through a simple “yes” to His call on our lives.