Christmas Miracles...And Something Greater

Friday morning I woke up to one of the greatest kid in the world peering into my bedroom.  It was my soon to be 6 year old niece, Emma.  She had spent the night at "Grammy and Pop Pops" house while Nate and I were visiting for Thanksgiving.  The deal was if she spent the night, I would be responsible for her in the morning!  I loved every minute of it.  The morning consisted of us wrapping up in the electric blanket wathing cartoons, taking a drive over to Starbucks for a special hot chocolate, singing at the top of our lungs in the car with Uncle Nate, and finishing off the morning with cinnamon rolls from Burger King!  It was a good morning.

I have learned to savor the moments I am given with family.  In fact, this Thanksgiving I found myself craving every minute I could get to have conversations with my sister, hang out with my Mom and Dad, and just be around my nieces (the only thing missing was my little sis and family all the way in Boston).  Family has been and continues to be an indesribable joy in my life.  I am already counting down the days until Christmas when we can all be together again.

Every time I am with my family, I imagine what it will be like when our little ones enter the picture.  I want them to experience how rich our traditions are.  I want them to understand the depth of love that comes from family.  I want them to understand sisterhood the way my sisters and I have experienced it.  I want them to know and come to love my mom and dad and see what unconditional love really looks like.  I want them to experience our craziness (and if you know the Long family, you know, WE ARE CRAZY!).  I want them to fall in love with the family I love with everything inside of me.

We are offically entering the Christmas season and I have tried really hard not to focus on praying for a "Christmas Miracle."  In fact, I told myself that I wouldn't say those words this year...that I would just let things happen.  And then I spent time with my family this weekend and realized just how much we want this to happen.  And then my friend Jenny sent me this video (which by the way I read before I went to my board meeting...not a good idea!).  And then I realized...God can do anything.  And so...I'm praying.

The past few months Nate and I have been running early in the mornings.  About a month and a half ago, I found myself praying for our children in Ethiopia during the second half of our run.  At first I prayed for their safety, for their health, and that someone would be there to take care of them.  Then one day, the word "Immanuel" kept popping into my head and my prayer began to change.  "God...be Immanuel to my children...be God with them...with me...with us."  Deep in my heart, I am still praying for a Christmas miracle (I would be crazy not to!).  I am praying that our children would know in their hearts that one day they will be united with a forever family who has developed a deep love for them already.  More than that, I pray that our children wherever they may lay their heads tonight and all nights would know that there is a God who holds their hands, their hearts, and their dreams.  Immanuel...God with us...may we be reminded of the same.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Donut Story

Image
When I was about five years into being a Youth Pastor, I met a group of kids that changed my life.  Many of you reading this, who know me personally, have probably heard me talk about them numerous times.  Nate and I happened to live in the parsonage next door to the church I was serving at at the time, and would routinely come home to a group of boys that I would have described then as "rough around the edges."   They dressed mostly in black, had long hair, and sometimes even had black painted fingernails.  They loved to smoke, and they loved to skateboard.  After a few days of watching them through our window, Nate and I went outside and brought them some sodas.  We introduced ourselves, told them I was the Youth Pastor at the church, and invited them to come to youth group.  While they politely declined our invitation, we continued to invite them over and over again, attempted to skate with them, and fill them with snacks.  Until one day, ...
Read more

A Mother's Heart...

Image
It was the night before we were ready to leave for Ethiopia that it dawned on me. We hadn’t given the necklace to Biruk yet. When we had exchanged necklaces with his birth mom ten years prior at the orphanage, we had no idea when we would give it to him. We just knew that we wanted him to be old enough to appreciate it, as it would be the only thing he would have from her. We had no idea if we would ever see her again.  There have been several moments in our journey where I’ve had to pinch myself, because it has felt like I was dreaming. That night as we put our final things in our suitcases, took a deep breath, and came to the realization that we were not only taking our kids to Ethiopia, but that Biruk would in fact meet his birth mom…well, you had to pinch me, because it felt like I was dreaming. It also felt like the perfect moment to share this gift that we had been holding onto for 10 years. So we pulled out the necklace and gave it to Biruk. While words can be few and...
Read more

Stories Matter

Image
Yesterday, my family and I found ourselves at a local elementary school’s culture club, presenting about our trip to Ethiopia. Even as I write those words, it kind of blows my mind how God has continued to use our story in unexpected places. When the kids were old enough to understand, we began to talk about taking them back to their birth country when they turned 10. We figured at 10, they would be old enough to be pretty good travelers, but still approach the adventure with a childlike wonder. What we didn’t plan on, was that the year Biruk turned 10 would come on the heels of me taking a brand new job, our family moving to a new state, and buying our very first house, in an economy that felt as though it was tanking!  I remember talking to my counselor one day and sharing with him that while we had always promised this trip to our kids, it just didn’t seem to make financial sense. After all, last time I checked, Southwest Airlines does not travel to Africa. He said someth...
Read more