A Special Visit

On Friday, we got a special visit. The director of the mission that runs the home where Rugrat was cared for was traveling near us with her daughters and made a little side trip to see her. I was a little nervous but excited too to meet her. Both she and her daughters had lived there at times and so all knew the Rugrat.

The director mentioned that sometimes seeing these children in their new homes was surreal to her. That was probably a pretty good word. This woman sitting in my living room had seen Rugrat take her first steps, had dealt with her issues with eating and textures. And as it turns out, carried her to the van on the day she came to join us. She was saying a goodbye as I sat in a hotel lobby with butterflies in my stomach and trying not to let my emotions overflow my eyes. And she was probably worrying and wondering as I was spotting my first sight of a tiny little girl (whose size I had been trying to guess at for months) through a window at the registration office. Surreal is definitely a good word.

We got to visit for a short while (she had to be somewhere else that evening) and I watched her daughters play with Rugrat and resume their acquaintance as well. They were curious about all kinds of things that she had been doing. My questions had all flown away somewhere when they pulled up (did I say I was a little nervous?). Fortunately, I have her email address so I can ask later if I want to. I had intended to show them her room and possibly her scrapbook. I even made Lemon bars which I never thought to offer -- oops. I didn't take a single picture either (which by the way carried over to the family reunion we went to that weekend). I was really not on my game, I guess.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed our visit and now I have a face to put with the name. I am sure that we will continue to share pictures and keep communicating as Rugrat grows. Because she too loves our Rugrat.

And she is a link to a history that Rugrat is blessed to have. I have said before that many of the children from our group had nothing -- a paragraph of how they came to the orphanage perhaps and, if they were lucky, a favorite toy or something. Our little one had a memory stick of photos and not one, but two women who have a special place in their hearts for her. God was blessing her long before He brought her to us.

And, well, now He's blessing us.