Dexter types:
So, its my turn. It is very hard to sum up two weeks of China in a message you could read in one sitting. We have had many challenges with all that goes into being over here, from language barriers, to food choices, to just about everything you could imagine being half-way around the world with your whole family. The hardest by far for me has been trying to get Maggie to want to come to me and feel comfortable with me. Today, it was a breakthrough. We retried the highchair and the stroller and, at first, she screamed again, but only for a few minutes this time. We were making progress. I had her giggling in the stroller after just 2-3 minutes down the streets and sidewalks of Shamian Island with wheelies and curb jumps and all kinds of acrobatic stroller tricks. She loved it.
We walked for the next 2-3 hours, just strolling along the sidewalks and talking to people in the park. It was magnificent. The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. Some shopping, we packed up most everything for leaving and met our new friends for dinner at our favorite restaurant on the Island. Now, we headed home and got ready for baths and bed, but tonight would be different than any of the other ten. She let me bathe her while she played in the bath tub and splashed water to her hearts delight, and to mine. All the rest have just been "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (for both of us)! For several nights, though, she has been letting me give her a lotion massage and get her dressed for bedtime, but that was it. Nothing more. Tonight once I had her dressed she let me hold her and snuggle and give her a bottle. All of this was a first. It was fantastic! "She DOES love me," I thought.
That was almost two hours ago and she is still singing and playing in the bed next to me. I almost want her to stay up so that she wont forget in the morning how much she loved me tonight. God has been showing me this whole time how He feels when we, His children, reject Him and want to push Him and His love away when He tries to give it to us. Jeremiah tells us that God "knew us before we were formed in the womb" much like I knew Maggie before we got her last week. I knew how long I had wanted to hold her, protect her, cherish her, and give her all the love she could stand, but she did not know me. I had to show her my patient, kind, tender, forgiving love that I have for her for her to trust me enough to come to me. I am a sinful human, and I can show her this love how much more perfect is God's love for His children in that He is perfect. God has shown us His perfect love, in that, He made a way for us to see His love to trust Him and come to Him and accept His love. I have known that for many years, but today I really understand it.
I cannot believe He has seen me, even into my deepest being, and trusted me with this little girls life. I truly am the luckiest man on earth. I have been given such a wonderful family that I love so deeply. Thank you all for being there for us through this wonderful journey. I have a feeling that this is the ending of another chapter, but only the beginning of a really good "book".
Many Blessings to you all,
DEX and Patricia and the family.
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