We witnessed miracle after
miracle before our eyes over the following thirteen days of our trip. Like
watching a movie, we saw God plan out our every moment. Our meeting at the
orphanage with the social worker and psychologist amazed us. They couldn’t
thank us enough for what we did for Julian.
“This whole experience is
like a dream come true for Julian, a dream he never believed could actually come
true this late in his life. He always wanted his siblings to find a family, but
he thought it was already too late for him. Your relationship with him
motivates him to keep trying to succeed in all he does.” His psychologist explained
how we became his driving force, taking on the inspiring role of parents.
Because Julian demonstrated such a
gift in the arts and already accomplished so much academically for his age,
they allowed him to stay longer so they could enroll him into college. In that
meeting, we witnessed how hard his social worker pursued the best opportunities
available for each individual child in her care.
Both the psychologist and social
worker suddenly talked freely about the impact we also made on Juan David and
Viviana. We did indeed matter. Although we no longer maintained contact with
them, no one could erase the impact of the memories we built. That relationship
mattered, and it had purpose.
I walked away so impressed by the
support these three siblings received while in this orphanage. The very title
that scared me the most, the psychologist, actually made us feel the most
welcomed and appreciated with her warm, tender heart. In fact, she invited us
to spend an entire day sight-seeing with her and her son as our guides, and
later we enjoyed an authentic Colombian meal together at a famous restaurant
near her hometown. No longer the feared psychologist, she quickly assumed the
role of a dear friend. I will always remember her with very fond memories.
We arrived in Colombia still
feeling like someone slapped us in the face for even thinking we could parent
an adoptive child. Now we could leave Colombia feeling embraced and appreciated
for changing an orphan’s life and making his dreams come true. We also knew he changed
our lives as much as we changed his, if not more.
During our two weeks in Colombia, we
experienced one adventure after another. We visited Rachel’s ministry, took
lots of pictures, and we thanked God for the opportunity to expose Julian to
this beautiful ministry in his own hometown. We visited the Christian school
and met personally with the director to discuss future possibilities for our
family to get involved in the ministry by using our own God-given gifts and
talents. Julian never even heard of a missionary before, and now he had the
opportunity to meet many of them.
We finally got in touch with
the man who used to pastor the Spanish service at our church back home. As we
spent a beautiful evening with him and his family, Julian witnessed what the
family of Christ looks and acts like. Our friends even offered to take us to
the airport for our flight home, also promising to get Julian back home safely after
our departure. We knew basically no one before arriving in Colombia, but because
we made so many contacts with fellow Christians on our journey, we gained many
new friends, and they treated us like family.
We filled our days with
adventure and ate out more than we should have. We got quite familiar with the
mall, met a lot of people and spent nearly every evening with Clarita and her
roommate. But, more than anything, we spent time as a family, giving Julian the
experience he missed over the last eight years. We made popcorn, curled up
together on the futon, and watched movies on the laptop. We played games and
held Connect Four tournaments. David and Julian, determined to play together, always
found ways to communicate with their very limited Spanish and English.
Julian was eighteen years
old, nine years older than David, yet he still resembled a child at heart. We
learned in our pre-adoption training that an adopted child often needs to
revert back to the age they lost their parent, making them need the affection a
child of that age needs. Interestingly, that took Julian back to David’s
current age. No wonder they both got along and connected so well. No wonder he
took so quickly to the affection we naturally showed him.
Julian warmed up quickly. After
the first two nights, he stopped sleeping alone in the office. Instead, he stayed
up late listening to me read to David, though not understanding a word, before he
fell asleep on the futon right across from David. When he didn’t listen to me
read, he read a little New Testament in Spanish he found in the office, the
only reading material he could find in Spanish.
We shared many long talks, usually in the
mornings while Mike and David slept in. I found out he met Christ at the age of
nine. He could explain the gospel clearly and understood it well. Now, he read
Scripture every night and then explained what he read, showing me how well he
understood it. God so evidently worked in his life all these years. He just
needed someone to guide him in his spiritual growth.
We prayed together at all
of our meals, so much that Julian would remind us if we forgot to say the
prayer. We cooked and cleaned together every day and gave hugs and kisses every
night. I can’t even begin to count the times he stopped, looked at me with a
huge smile, and told me how much he loved being with us. We had become a
family, his family. He finally found where he belonged.
Sadly, our fourteen days together
came to an end, and we had to say goodbye. Our mountaintop experience finished,
and our life with Julian, now as a family of four, began. We left with the
promise to help him financially whenever he had to leave the orphanage, or to
pay for all of his expenses if he’s ever able to get a visa to study in the
States. His legal support team said they would help him with the process to
pursue that opportunity. They reminded us that the material help didn’t compare
to the affective bond we established with him.
His social worker said she’d stay in
contact with us to keep us involved in any decisions made for his future. He
finally got accepted into an art college and started a few weeks later, while
we returned to our own home and places of work.
We continue to call and write Julian
each week, as well as find an occasional time to communicate via a skype call
on the computer. We helped him out with his bus fare to go to school and with
all of the art supplies he needed for his classes. He sends us pictures of his
completed projects in return. We’re still praying diligently, asking God if,
when, or for how long He wants us to return to Colombia. For now, we plan to go
back in the summer to spend time with Julian again, and to actually work at the
Christian school doing short-term missions.
So, we’ll see how God leads
from here.
(I remember saying that
exact thing when Julian suddenly appeared in our lives . . . you never know
what God has up His sleeve.)
I jumped into teaching yet
another ladies’ Bible study at church for the summer, literally two days after
coming home from Colombia. I led a new group of ladies through a Women of Faith
workbook study called HOPE--The anchor for your soul.[1] Pretty fitting, I thought. For
the first time, I found myself on the other side of hope, having watched my
hope become a reality.
I started my next study in the fall,
Beth Moore’s DVD study called “The Inheritance”[2]. We learned together how God entrusts every experience to us as a part
of our inheritance. Sometimes He just tells us to grab hold of His hand and
hold on as tightly as we can because He will see us through it, through every unexpected tear along the way.
That describes our story in
a nutshell.
Each study I teach brings
new women into my life I might never have known. In fact, God brought a certain
lady to my study that first night in the fall who just happened to have grown
up as a missionary child in . . . Bogotá, Colombia!
This story keeps getting
better!
God did indeed give me the desires
of my heart, the ones I wrote in my letter to Him at the beginning of the
spring Bible study, even down to the printing of this book. Little did I know
while I wrote of my desire to write a book, I actually lived out the details of
the story He wanted me to write.
My last request in that letter asked
God to turn our story around to give us a story only He
could author. As to whether or not He did that,
I’ll let you, the reader, be the judge.
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