Everything Changes

This is Zhuang Lu Hu. Zhuang is the last name of the Orphanage director, all the kids have that name and Lu Hu means butterfly. She was found on the side of a road, less than a day old wrapped in a red and white rag next to another little baby. Butterfly is a compound Chinese name and both girls have half of the word butterfly since they were found together. Almost all the referral photos I've seen of children overseas waiting to be adopted have this vacant stare.


This is Wu Hong Cai. Wu means the town she is from, Hong Cai means, "a pretty name for a girl". She was found abandoned in a hospital a few days old, and was taken to an orphanage. She waited for almost 3 years for her family to come scoop her up and say, "There she is! There's our little girl." And they scooped her up and brought her home.


This is Amy Wu Cai Peak and Angela Lu Hu Peak , sisters. Same little girls but what a change. Not that they are older, but they are different. They belong, they have family and they have a name. Not the orphanage director's name but their own parents name that were chosen for them.



Today in church we heard a message on adoption as the church announced the launch of our new Orphan Care ministry, Hands of Hope. The message was about how Christ adopted us, our names were changed and we were given the title, "Child of God". But so much more than that, our before and after adoption tale is more than a fairy tale. Before we were forlorn, undesirable, unlovely and rejected by the world. When Christ adopted us, we went from no hope, no love to a bright future with God and Everlasting Love.

I just love looking at before and after pictures of adopted children. The before pictures are so sad, so forlorn. The after pictures are without a doubt, beautiful children with breathtaking changes from their before adoption pictures. What is the difference?

Love.

Learn to do good;
Seek justice,
Reprove the ruthless,
Defend the orphan,
Plead for the widow.
(Isa 1:17)