a gift

A few years ago Ian and I were given an amazing Christmas gift.  Someone who had noticed along with us that foster care had been an amazing gift for Caleb donated a year's sponsorship to have a child in foster care through Love Without Boundaries in our name. 

Each month in 2009 we received a detailed report on a darling little boy named Daniel.  (No, not our soon to be son Daniel ~ but this may be part of where inspiration for his name came from).  His personality shone through all that was written about him.  He seemed to be such a spirited little guy.  It was fun to watch his development that year as he is about six months younger than Caleb.  Often I'd envision our house with the added chaos of another little boy, and frequently I'd imagine this little face as the new addition.

This picture ~ that is still to this day on our fridge so that we can pray for him ~ was taken by a professional photographer late in the year that we sponsored him, while we were deep in the trenches of waiting for Darcy's LOA.  When I read the reason it was taken, my heart skipped a beat.  His photo was taken so that his future adoptive parents would have something more than just snapshots of him in his file.  How excited I was to think that he was finally "paper ready!"  I figured it would be just a short time until his family found him and began moving toward bringing him home.

Imagine my surprise in October of last year, just after we had sent in our LOA for our Daniel, when I saw his sweet face surface on a yahoo group that advocates for waiting children.  He did make it to the shared list, but he still didn't have a family?  How could that be?

There have been three little boys that I've been intensely praying for to find families.  My family has faithfully been praying alongside me.  One was Robert at New Day Foster Home (we have a special connection there).  About three weeks ago we got the blessed news that his family had "found him" and was working toward bringing him home.  Another was Luke at An Orphan's Wish (I became smitten with little Luke when I started writing for their blog).  Just last week an email came with the joyous news that he too has a family.  My kids and I have been quite "Undignified" in our dancing in response to those two precious boys finding families.

Now we wait for turn to dance for Daniel.  Because of sponsorship confidentiality, I can't share specifics about him.  But I can point you to a few posts about him on the LWB blog.   And they'll tell you a lot! 

And know that I can't wait to read about him running into the arms of his forever family...

Will you join us in praying that Daniel will have the gift of coming home to his family in 2011?

**And if you are wondering, yes, we have prayed about bringing home two children at the same time.  But right now we don't believe that God is leading us that way.**