Gifts just for me

Let's talk about friends, family, and community. Have you ever read about what the very first church was like in the book of Acts? It was a fearful time, Jesus was no longer physically on the scene and this new group was emerging. They weren't really sure what to do so they just started doing what they had seen Jesus do. That's my heart and biggest goal in life to love people like Jesus did. After Silas and I talked that day we sat down as a family and asked each other what we could do to be like him. We all agreed helping hurting families was the best next step for us. We all agreed that Silas was on to something. That first hospital stay we began to experience ourselves what it was like to be loved in a Jesus way. People snuck into our house and left breakfast in our freezer for when we got back from the hospital, others made meals, I was given so many clothes and baby gear that I ended up donating some of it to other foster families, at one point we had strangers mowing our lawn and friends we hadn't seen in years pressure washing our house. Sometimes when life felt big a friend would show up with lunch for the hoolies and let me cry on her shoulder. We have more people I can count praying for us. Some would come play with the kids so I could have an afternoon to catch up on my notes. Some would clean. Many, many would babysit. And then there are these sweet meant just for me gifts like this one. This shirt belonged to my big boys when they were small. I passed it on to a friend. It was one of my favorite shirts from their toddler years. I had been keeping an eye out for one like it for my third boy to wear. That is until last week, the same day we got our adoption date, when I was opening the mail and found this inside with a sweet little note saying how she thought I might need it again. Not only had I not told anybody we had an adoption date, I also hadn't told anybody I was looking for this shirt. It's a perfect fit. To him it's just a shirt, but to me it's deep love. It's one more gift that I didn't need, but will cherish forever. This journey would have been much more difficult without friends and sometimes even strangers that spent time building into and loving us. Thank you dear friends... You know what would make my heart happy is if you in anyway loved on us, prayed for us, gave to us, even if we didn't know it (because I know some strangers invested in us) I would if you wrote it down and sent it to us. Someday my boy will have questions and need answers. Someday he will feel the rejection of his first mother. I would love to have a box full of memories written by many different hands speaking of how loved he has always been.