Tonight I was able to hug, kiss, and hold a child of Africa here in Mount Vernon, Ohio at a local ice cream shop. My heart was rocked. Please know that children are children, and I wouldn’t ever state that the color of a child’s skin affects my love for them. But when I held Phineas and played silly face games with him, I immediately thought of the children I shared life with in Uganda. I thought back to the memories of the Sunday afternoon that we piled all of the kids into the newly donated van so they could all go to church together, a first for them. I remember the looks on the kids faces as we took them out for lunch and even got ice cream for everyone. I consider the ridiculous amounts of dancing in the van that we experienced while waiting in town, and the culture shock the mzungo’s all felt when the kids opened up the van door to throw their trash out on the ground in the middle of town.

Phineas is the son of my director at work, who is also a good friend of mine. Our relationship dates back to my junior high days when he was a youth pastor in my area. Unfortunately, he knows the many sides and seasons of my life, including the obnoxious middle school memories that I sometimes try to disguise.  He and his wife Kelly have a beautiful family, and their adoption process was a building point to the passion that has been discovered and incredibly fueled from the Ugandan experience. Phineas was adopted from Ethiopia, and I was able to be at the airport for his first steps on American soil, the interaction with his new family, and all of the love that came with it. Tonight was the first time I had seen Phineas in a few months, and I noticed a dynamic change in the way that I love on children. It’s a God-given appreciation and desire to just absorb their joy, wipe their tears (and mouth if you are eating ice cream), and embrace the beauty of it all. It was simply another affirmation that the Lord is actively present in my life. He always has been, I just haven’t always been aware and open to it.

There is so much beauty in the stories of redemption and deliverance through adoption.  This entire season of knowledge and growth is appropriately happening in a time where I have dove into the thoughts of inner healing and reflection of the earliest memories that I have. I can’t keep up with the seemingly endless amount of stories through Bill Johnson, Heidi Baker, and many others. Fortunately I have some incredible friends and mentors called into the same season of learning.

I long to see more and more of those beautiful smiles.. There are children all around the world that need to know they are loved. And even if they have lost a parent here on this earth, even if they have ever felt abandoned or unloved, they have a Father in heaven that will always be with them, and there is nothing we can do to make Him love us more or less.