Seriously.
One year ago today I fell in love.
The fall wasn’t gentle, it wasn’t rosy, and it wasn’t kind. But it was good.
Many of you have heard the story, but for those of you that haven’t I will give you a brief overview. I had just been introduced to a country that my heart had longed to adventure to for years. I didn’t know why I felt this urge to go to India but I wanted it more than anything. This transition started out as a challenge though. It had been an arduous task for our leadership to get our Visa’s into the country, we had just gone through our first team changes (which at the time seemed devastating), and we were off to a new continent.
But for some reason my heart was full of hope and expectancy of what God was going to do.
We had just arrived for our first day of ministry at Victory Home, one of the foster homes for the children of Sarah’s Covenant Homes ministry. We were told to choose a name from a list to find out the child who we would be spending the majority of our time loving on that month. As my eyes scanned the text one name stuck out to me immediately, Eleanor, it read. My heart started thumping faster and an excitement filled my soul because I knew God was up to something.
As we were given our guided tour of the residence we came across the “baby room” and I saw this little girl with a look of discontentment on her face lying under a fleece blanket with lice infested hair. It was soon revealed that this little girl was indeed my focus child and her legs were covered in casts from her hips to her toes. So in an effort to introduce myself I sat on the side of her mattress and touched her cheek attempting to lock eyes.
And that’s when it happened.
It felt like my heart dropped to the floor.
I couldn’t catch my breath.
Surely the oxygen in the room was thinner than it was a minute before.
But it wasn’t, I just didn’t recognize the change that had taken place at first. I took a second to gather my thoughts and realized that I was overwhelmed with a heartbreaking adoration for this little girl that I didn’t even know yet.
What had happened when I saw Eleanor’s eyes was only a gift from the Father where he gave me a glimpse of insight into how he saw this beautiful little girl.
The Spirit inside me sang out a song of adoption over this little girls soul. My spirit clung to hers in an instant and there was no way to eradicate the fusion that had just happened.
I had fallen in love.
Now I sit here a year later and remember the great things that came out of being with Eleanor for the time that I was. I sang to her, played with her, smiled at her, and clapped with her. I got to be there for her after her cast got removed and I probably got lice from her.
I count it all joy.
