A special experience

Ryan and I had the privilege last Sunday of attending a birthday party for the Mestas twins. This is a family that are in our Tapestry of Grace co-op for homeschool. We have really enjoyed following their Ethiopian adoption journey and have been blessed by their transparency and willingness to invest in other families who have hearts for adoption.
They brought 3 siblings home from Ethiopia in November- a 3 year old boy and his twin sisters. Knowing that we were just beginning our adoption process, they were kind enough to invite us to the twins' first birthday party on Sunday. What a blessing it was. Not only did we get to witness the celebration for their beautiful girls, but we got to meet at least a 1/2 dozen other adoptive couples. The crazy thing was, we had been following several of their blogs, and you would have thought we were meeting our favorite movie stars, not just ordinary folks in the blog world.
It was very beneficial for us because we got to chat with people at all points in the process. We chatted with a family who had been home with their child for 2 years, 2 families that had been home with their children for 4 days (yes days!), and 2 families that had referrals but were waiting for court dates. We gained a wealth of information and contacts that we know will be a treasure to us in the months to come.
At one point, they invited any adoptive families who wanted to share their stories to share. Well, it was all I could do to sit and listen without ugly face crying. Adoption is something that I am so tender to and so affected by- no more than ever. At one point there was this beautiful family standing there with their 4 children- 3 of them were biological children and then their Ethiopian son who was celebrating his 5th birthday. Everyone began singing to him and he was grinning from ear to ear- as beautiful as any child could be, and I lost it! I looked at Ryan and I could tell he was on the verge of losing it too. I think it was just a strong visual picture for us of where we are headed and what a beautiful thing this truly is. Not because of who we are or what we are capable of, but because of who God is and what He is capable of. I am just overwhelmed that God would chose someone as inadequate as me to care for 4 much less 5 of His children- thank you Lord for such a high and holy calling!