A Look Back

This morning I have some time to myself while Allison is at a friend's house, so I'm taking time to organize her room. I wanted to go through the big boxes of "China Memorabilia" to make sure there wasn't any fall clothing in there that might fit her (we bought clothing in a bunch of sizes when we were in China), and I came across the bag of Gotcha Day clothes. I will save these forever. They've never been cleaned, and never will be. I've read many, many Gotcha Day blogs, and in many you'll hear how the children were brought to the parents in brand new, matching outfits. Obviously that was not the case with Allison. Her outer outfit (the green one) was nice enough. But when I took her back to our room and looked underneath, I cried. Simply put, they were rags. I wanted to change her into brand new clothes right away, but I didn't. We'd been told that her clothing and its smells might comfort her through the night, so we removed the top layer and put her to bed wearing the underclothes she came to us in.

Over the next few days I would come to realize that even babies in rags can be very happy. As we traveled through the countryside where Allison came from, we saw many children dressed similarly. They were smiling, laughing, happy children. We did not "save" Allison from a horrible life. We just offered her a life with more opportunities, more choices, and most importantly a chance to learn about Jesus and what He did for her. Mind, you, I'm still going to buy nice clothing for my child and sometimes even go WAY overboard with her wardrobe, but today I was reminded that we are not judged by these things. Jesus will not care if we wore fine linens or rags. He will care how we treated other people, and I pray we are able to instill this truth in our daughter.