Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: OVERSEAS VACATION (08/13/15)
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TITLE: Light of Love | Previous Challenge Entry
By Hannah Gaudette
08/20/15 -
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“Tilly? You okay?” Josiah asked.
I looked up at my husband, startled. But was I really okay? Could I even answer that? Nothing was going like it was supposed to on this vacation. We were walking away from God and ignoring His call to us.
I looked away as we boarded the boat with the other passengers to start back to America. Tears burned my eyes and I gripped the rail. We were leaving, yet there she sat. We were running away, yet there she waited. Her tiny eyes and innocent smile that could melt a mother's heart. So young, so lost, yet so filled with hope.
“Tilly?” Josiah put his hand on my shoulder. “What's wrong?”
I turned around and faced him. “We lost Katie, Josiah. She's gone. But we never put it in the past, we never moved forward.”
“What are you saying?” His strong voice wavered.
“I'm saying we need to go back.” I pointed to the Chinese shoreline that the boat began to pull away from. “Maybe we can't bring Katie back, but we can bring Lian home with us.”
“You said you never wanted to adopt.”
“Josiah, please. I know what I said, but I believe God is calling us to that little girl. She has nothing, no one. And you've seen how she's taken to us these past weeks.”
My husband looked back to the dock, hesitation playing on his face. My heartbeat faltered. To leave her behind would shatter it all over again. I knew what it was like to be left behind. My parents had been in our place once before, face with the choice of giving up their two children to an orphanage or risk us all ending up in a homeless shelter.
I could so vividly see my mother's desperate face as she pleaded with Dad not to leave behind my brother and I. Whether or not he cared, I never knew. Their car drove away from us, and the feeling of betrayal that consumed one so young left a permanent scar on my heart.
Lian. I refocused on the task in front of me. Josiah and I lost our own daughter two years ago, but I couldn't make the choice my own parents had and leave this one behind.
“Josiah, please . . .” I pleaded.
He turned back to me.
“God put that little girl in our lives for a reason. We can't abandon the call to save her.” A fire was lit in my soul. We'd come on this vacation in an attempt to calm our grieving hearts, but I was pretty sure God had other plans.
The boat was gaining speed, pulling us away from China. Away from Lian . . . away from our daughter.
“Captain!”
Josiah's sudden, sharp voice jolted me out of my trance of fear.
“Turn around! We left our daughter behind!”
“Ya got to be kiddin' me? You sure?” the captain called.
Josiah turned to me, the first hint of a smile growing on his face. “Very sure. Just turn around.”
The boat docked once more and my husband and I hurried along the shoreline until we came to where the child sat, watching the seabirds play.
We stopped. “Lian?” I called.
She looked up and brushed her untamed black hair from her eyes. That tiny, precious face made my heart stumble.
“How would you like to go home with us?” Josiah asked.
Lian hesitated, blinked, then jumped up, racing toward our outstretched arms. Tears dampened her cheeks, but a smile stayed firmly planted on her face. And the grief that had been locked in my heart turned into heaven-sent joy.
Since that summer day, Josiah, Lian, and I have adopted three more Chinese children, two of them twin brothers. They are loved and part of our New England family just as much as little Lian.
Over and over again, we are called to retake that trip to China, and many times we find ourselves helping children in poverty. God's light, which first shined brightest to us through the heart of a child, has grown in our lives.
Never before had we felt His love so powerfully and fervently than when we first put our arms around His daughter, Lian.
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