Wait for ME!




As I closed my eyes in sleep just after midnight last night, one of the most incredible years of my life slipped into the past.  This year marked the answer to so many long awaited prayers for our family and for me personally, I can hardly process it all.  Until now, with a few hours alone while my husband carries the load for me, I have not even found the time or the words to write it all down…  So many answers I don’t know where to begin…  So many thoughts I can hardly express them.    

From the vantage point of another new year, I honestly can’t believe how much has changed since we celebrated the beginning of 2015.  Only 365 days ago found us in a long and extended period of waiting.  My ailing father was waiting to breathe his last and finally be relieved of the earthly struggle he had known too well following a massive stroke 12 years ago.  We stood vigil by his bed and waited with him.  And yet, as we prayed for the mercy of death to come take Daddy home, we prayed for the gift of life our daughter, Rachel, needed to survive. 

It had been almost 3 years of waiting for a new heart for her and I admit that I had begun to grow weary and less hopeful with each passing day that the outcome I desired would be the culmination of that waiting. 

Just one year ago, we were also waiting far longer than expected to bring our fifth daughter home from China.  I found this wait hard to justify on any spiritual level, because it meant a 5 year old orphaned girl would spend another day, another week, another month, without a family of her own.  Yet I was helpless to speed the powers that be in China to do anything about it! 

All that waiting meant that much of my life and many of my personal desires were on what seemed an eternal “hold” for another day too.  Even my promised trip to Israel with Doug was postponed until our days of waiting were through.  “Waiting” had become my calling card and I didn’t like it.  But if there was a lesson to be learned in waiting, I certainly didn’t want to miss it or give God any excuse to repeat or prolong it, so I slowly surrendered myself to the lessons it seems only long periods of waiting have the ability to teach.

You know the rest of the story, if you have been anywhere nearby to hear the celebrations ringing through our home as God’s awaited answers came one by one…  

Daddy finally found peace in death in the early hours of January 4, 2015.  I watched as they tenderly came to collect his earthly tent and I wept as I watched one season of my life as my Daddy’s girl, give way to a world without him.  




On April 7, 2015, in Jinan, China, a 5 year old girl we would name Rebekah, walked into my heart and into my life in ways I did not expect or even know were possible and ended the long wait to wrap my arms around this precious gift from God.   I am honestly at a loss for words right now…  I keep typing and retyping words to somehow convey how one little girl can wedge herself into a 50 year old heart and leave it so radically changed I almost don’t recognize myself.   

I had only known Rebekah for about one hour when she fell asleep in my arms as we drove away from her orphanage for the last time.  Something so unimaginably huge had occurred in my heart in that hour that I literally felt that it might burst from within me.   I called Doug at home and told him to ready his own heart for what laid ahead.  If this little girl could do such things to me, I could only imagine what was to come for her softhearted Daddy!  One viewing of Rebekah’s homecoming video when she finally met her Daddy was enough proof that I was right in my warning!  Rebekah affectionately calls Doug “Baba-YeYe” and, yes, he melts at the sound of it every.single.time!

“Praise be to God for this indescribable gift!”
Then, on May 5, 2015, after 3 years and 2 months of waiting, a call came from Rachel’s beloved cardiologist, Dr Fricker.  It did not occur to me when I answered the phone that afternoon, that God’s answer had finally come!  Everything we had hoped for… prayed for… and waited for, was finally to be!  A perfect match had been found in the immeasurable loss of a mother and she had chosen to give life to our little girl.  I was waiting by the Emergency Room entrance, pacing up and down the sidewalk in the cold night, when Rachel’s new heart arrived on an ambulance at 4:30AM the next morning.  This particular wait was different than any I had ever experienced, because I knew that as this gift arrived and ushered hope to our daughter, a mother’s hopes and dreams for her own child had ended.   I followed the cooler containing Rachel’s new heart through the hallways of the hospital and to the elevator doors that would take it to the operating room where her broken heart was being removed.  On May 6, 2015, Rachel received the gift of a new heart.  The old had gone.  The new had come.  Our waiting was over.     
                                                                 

2015 included TWO precious grandsons, Luke and Elliot!  And then... another for next year too!


And yet, 2015 held even more unexpected gifts for me!  Another wait ended.  Precious friends flew into town, graciously took on the heavy responsibility of caring for my five daughters, and sent Doug and I away to Israel for the trip of a lifetime!    There are many blogs to follow and thoughts that have yet to find their way to paper to be shared.  But, for now, they are safely tucked away in my heart as the culmination… the sweet reward… and the immeasurable gifts from God in waiting!    

Each year I ask the Lord what He would have for me in the year ahead.  The one behind me was so monumental and the culmination of so many difficult life lessons, I wondered what God might have next.  He was not slow to direct me and that direction was so much clearer than usual that I knew He had no intention of waiting for January 1 to get started!

His words resounded through my thoughts again and again…  
I could not escape them… 
       “Be still and know that I am God”   

When I saw this bracelet in Israel with those words written in Hebrew, I knew it was a gift for me.   But it occurred to me today that, even in this New Year, God is still calling me to wait!   To “be still” is to wait.  But it is more!  God beckons me to wait for HIM! 


I have spent many of the past years waiting for the outcomes I desire or the fulfillment of my hopes and dreams.  God holds something far better in Himself… in knowing HIM.  He calls out to me for 2016 and for every year that follows…  “Be still, Lori… Wait for ME!”


Our entire family was gathered together to celebrate what Christ has done and all He is yet to do in and through our lives as we seek to serve Him!  Following are some of my favorite people in the world and some of the photos that bring a smile each time I remember our special time together!

Who wouldn't love Auntie Abby?

Rebekah is a natural born Auntie and lover of babies!

Hang on.... Abby needs a hug before we can take any more photos!

Now she's ready!!!

Poppy and his little Buddy!  All is right in the world today! 
This will never get old for this Lolli and Poppy!  May there be many, many more to come!

Oh, how this man loves his GIRLS!




This ball of JOY will either keep us young... or kill us!!!!

Sarah and Rachel

A rare treasure... Together with all EIGHT of my babies at once!


Ryan, Schaeffer, and Elliot

Russ, Steph, and Luke



           From our family to yours...  HAPPY NEW YEAR!  
                      May God's blessings overflow to you!


9 comments:

  1. Lori, beautiful is the only word I can come up with. What a wonderful year for your family, my heart is full just getting a glimpse into your life:)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for a beautiful post. I've been wondering how Rachel did and she looks radiant! The pictures are worth a thousand words (including the beautiful photos of the grands. May 2016 be another year of grace-filled moments and JOY!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Enjoyed your post on the events of your past year. The sorrow, the joys, the transitions. So much to go through in such a short time! I am in Jinan now adopting our 5th child from China. She's from Qingdao CWI.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I’m always looking for new blog ideas. I know I need to try a giveaway, for sure. Will bookmark to have as a reference.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am Shannon Land by name. Greetings to every one that is reading this testimony. I have been rejected by my husband after three(2) years of marriage just because another woman had a spell on him and he left me and the kid to suffer. One day when i was reading through the web, i saw a post on how this spell caster on this email address:drjattolovespelltemple@gmail.com have help a woman to get back her husband and i gave him a reply to his address and he told me that a woman had a spell on my husband and he told me that he will help me and after 2 days that i will have my husband back. i believed him and today i am glad to let you all know that this spell caster have the power to bring lovers back. because i am now happy with my husband. Thanks for Dr. Jatto. his email:drjattolovespelltemple@yahoo.co.uk or his Mobile Number:+27832193146.

    ReplyDelete
  6. My husband left me and said he no longer loves me after spending 9years with me, We have a beautiful daughter of 5 Year. I was not able to understand just how someone can fall out of love after 9years the fact that he feels the way that he does. He no longer wants to do anything with me talk to me or see me I feel that our marriage can be saved but it was miserable when my partner doesn't want anything to do with me. few days ago a friend directed me to dr agumba and i contacted him through email, after 48 hours my husband came to me and he admitted that everything he had been doing to me was wrong and he truly apologized thanks to dr agumba he did perfect work to safe my marriage his email is being attached to my post to contact him. dragumbasolutioncenter@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. I am so happy writing this testimony today. I will write this testimony in other places to help others find this spell caster and get help. My name is ESTHER LOOKMAN. I am from USA. There is only one spell caster i have contacted that have helped me of the spell casters i met online. I did not spend a week talking with this man when i started to see changes in my life and my husband's life. His name is DR OBED I have been married for 7 years and i couldn't bear a child. My husband was going out with another woman and still drinking, smoking AND OTHERS BAD things he never use too do before. It was hard for me to bear and i have been searching for help. I contacted this spell doctor and my husband soon started coming home always after work within 4 days at first, soon the other woman left him alone and soon i became pregnant. It is a bundle of Joy in me that i finally found help with a short period of contact to last me my entire life. How else will i share this testimony of my life. Please help me share. Contact him too, Yes, FOR ANY CANE OF PROBLEMS, ANY TYPE HE WILL HELP YOU FINE THE SOLUTION........ Follow his email address (drobedspelltemple@hotmail.com).... God bless you.....

    ReplyDelete
  8. My husband and I have been infected with human papillomanvirus although i was the coursed i cheated on my husband it was when i contracted the virus for the pasted 3 years this has been a deeply situation so embarrassed every-time i looked at my self i just pissed off the virus was getting over my life. just to make the story short, few weeks ago i found a herbalist Dr. online who has cured hpv patients with 100% excellent result and i inquire the treatment me and my wife taking it for two weeks and we got cured i just want to use this medium to thanks Dr Ogedegbe for his wonderful treatment he so-much saved us out from this virus. his information been attached to my post you can reach out to him via, whatsapp num +2348109374702  . or email dr.ogedegbe6@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.