Gotcha Day for Elijah

Today we celebrate that three years ago we met our long awaited treasure, Elijah.  We started out innocently enough sponsoring him while he lived at Shepherd's Field.  Little did we know that God was planting in our hearts the desire for him to be more than a sponsored child, but to be a member of our family.  A year and a half after starting our sponsorship and after much, much prayer God granted the desires of our hearts.  He opened doors, leveled mountains, broke down gates of bronze, and cut through bars of iron to give us this treasure (Isaiah 45:1-3).

It was an exciting day.  We flew from Osaka (after spending Christmas with my family) to Beijing and within a very short time we were watching this brave young boy walk across the courtyard of Shepherd's Field with his teacher and his ayi.  We could hardly contain ourselves, wanting to rush out the doors and swarm him with our hugs.  We weren't sure how he would react to our family of then six, but he greeted us with huge smiles that have never faded away. 

 

Elijah is the bravest, most resilient person I know.  I can't begin to fathom the heartache he has experienced in his young life, being literally abandoned on the streets at the age of eight, left to fend for himself.  Elijah faces each day with that same huge smile we were greeted with on that very first cold day in Tianjin.  He embraces new experiences.  He loves to learn, being so inquisitive and always asking questions.  He is technically minded, yet has a heart of gold.  He shares his belongings with joy, looks out for his younger sisters, and joyfully obeys when asked to accomplish a task.  For experiencing such traumatic things, his heart is tender, not cold or empty.  What a treasure indeed!

We celebrated today at our favorite Chinese restaurant.  Yummy.....obviously our eyes were bigger than our stomachs because we came home with a LOT.  :)

We love you, Elijah, and are so glad that God saw fit to allow us the privilege of having you in our family.  Happy Gotcha Day!