Those who stay...

Four girls who are orphaned with little or no hope of ever having a family to call their own. These children have our hearts. During worship on Sunday morning, during prayer time in my home, when my heart is singing praises to my Father, and so many times during the day,during sacred moments and not-so-sacred moments,snapshots of the children who remain in the orphanage crowd my mind and remain with me.

Let me introduce you to some of these who kept a piece of our hearts when we left China.

Esther, Reserved. Modest. Quiet. Humble. Self-controlled. Hidden. The story of Esther is a beautiful story of a young woman who showed strength in her reliance on God during troubled times. I found this statement about the name and the girl... “The true honor of the princess is within.” That is our Esther. She has an inner beauty. An unshakable joy. And a strength that comes from making the best of her circumstances. Our girl Esther...

The young lady on the right in this photo is Rachel, beautiful and well favored. Jacob loved Rachel deeply and worked to bring her into his home. Our Rachel is quiet, sensitive, and deeply loved. I pray she will realize how much we love her, how much her Father loves her.

These two. They wake us in the night hours. They bring us to tears and drive us to our knees as we go through the day. Our girls. Rachel and Esther. Orphaned. Many of the children at the SWI have physical or mental special needs that for one reason or another have caused them to be placed in the orphanage. These two girls are healthy with no special needs. Their minds are sharp. Their thoughts are clear. There is no way for our hearts and minds to reduce the magnitude of the fact that they are orphaned, and they know it!

They were on break from 'orphan school' while we visited. Can you even begin to imagine knowing you are going to orphan school? Knowing that people who see you, see 'orphan' before they see the person you are? These girls know the best their lives ever have to offer is being tagged 'orphan.' When I first met Rachel, she looked as if she had nothing to smile about. That broke my heart. My desire was that we see her smile before we left. And we did. My daughter (standing next to Rachel in the photo) was ready to come home and BEG her dad to start paperwork to adopt a teen sister. Another teen member of our group had started planning ways to convince his family to bring the other girl home... But we discovered these two are unadoptable. They have social circumstances that pretty much guarantee they will live their childhood lives as orphans. Funny thing is, my mind knows their situation. My heart knows their Father, and He keeps reminding me that He places the lonely in families.

Naomi means “my joy,” “my bliss,” or “pleasantness of Jehovah,” and is a name suggestive of all that is charming, agreeable, attractive. All that is charming, agreeable, attractive. Oh sweet Naomi! How I long to give you and hug -- and to get a hug in return from you. Such a loving young lady, and it is, oh, so easy to love her!! She is the first one we see when we arrive at the orphanage, and she stays with us as much as she possibly can. This young girl is so full of love and simply desires to have that love returned to her.

Ruthi, Companion; friend; vision of beauty. We never saw Naomi without Ruthi at her side. These two have learned the art of friendship. And dear goodness, we could learn a thing or two from them... We told the girls the names we had given them. We told them the meanings of their names. They knew we didn't take naming them lightly, and they had a deep appreciation for this gift we gave them. Ruthi was shy. The "r" sound is a difficult one to make in the Chinese language. She would sit with me when no one was listening and work at sounding out her name. Precious, precious girl...

Ruthi and Naomi. These girls. As I wrote about our other teens, the two who attend 'orphan school,' my heart broke for these two girls. Ruthi and Naomi don't even have school. They watch as the other teens leave for school while they stay at the orphanage. I work in a learning atmosphere with children here in the states, and I've seen the joy on the children's faces when they realize they have learned something new or mastered a task. How sad that these girls aren't given the opportunity to experience that joy. In a good case scenario, they will remain at the orphanage and work as adults. I hope they get that good case scenario. I'm reminded that life isn't always easy or fair. The Lord and I talk about these two often, join us?