God's so big

We just got home from our two week cruise to Hawaii. It was such a relaxing and fun trip, but it was like being a different world so contrary to what our normal life is like.  I was beginning to miss our busyness with the kids, the adoption and the house.

First day on cruise

God had such wonderful blessings for us on the cruise. We were able to attend a passenger bible study almost everyday where we could fellowship.  I was able to share with this group of believers about our adoption and even made prayer cards asked them to keep us in their prayers. I never thought that would happen on a cruise!

The second blessings was meeting a man named Gary on the cruise who was a 40 something adult with Down syndrome. He came with his parents but he was mostly independent, doing his own thing- going to workout in the gym, eating at the buffet, watching the shows alone. I wasn't able to communicate with him too effectively but I did have a very sweet interaction with him at the gym. He decided to help put away the chairs and clean up the aerobics studio after a seminar. The instructor told him he didn't have to do it all, but Gary had other plans. I don't think Gary does things half-way. He finishes the job. He doesn't like clutter or disorder. He found a spill on the floor and started cleaning up, but it woulnd't come off. He said to me "mop" and went to get an employee. She cleaned up a bit, but he didn't like that she didn't finish and so he kept working on it. I asked him, "You don't like messes, do you?" to which he responded with a hand gesture and emphatic "No!" I offered some of my water from my water bottle to get the sticky mess up and after we worked on it, Gary seemed satisfied that it was good enough. Then he said he needed to wash his hands and excused myself.

I was so impressed with Gary. Perhaps his verbal communication skills are not his strength, but wow, his determination and his helpfulness and his selflessness...  I couldn't help but tear up thinking about Maria and how she was overlooked by her parents thinking she had nothing to offer them.  My husband walked in at that moment and he was like, "I would be happy to have any child like that in our family." (My husband is very organized and clean like Gary and our children are a bit less interested in that quality).  Hopefully I'm not causing anyone to miss my point, which is that we all have strengths and weaknesses and so often we focus on what people can't do and what their impairments are. My hope is that people will see Maria this way and that God will use her to bless others.

No word yet on our apostilled docs, maybe an update soon?  We also might be moving soon as we are finishing up mortgage docs.

Welcome back to reality!