A couple of weekends ago we spent 2.5 days cleaning out my mother-in-law's house in Florida. Because of health issues, we recently moved her to be near our family. As an antique dealer for many years, she had a houseful of beautiful things! Most went to a high end auction house. Then we sent a trailer-full to a mid-level auction house. Then came the real work. As a family, we went through everything and sorted it into garage sale or trash. There were thousands of items! I'm not kidding. THOUSANDS! Dishes and hats and books and clothes and more hats and more books and more clothes and simply a lifetime of things that we all tend to accumulate. We sorted one day and did a Garage Sale as a fundraiser for Orbie for Orphans the next. Now I could be labeled an expert at putting on a garage sale, but my head is still spinning from this one. There were so many items, people were literally overwhelmed. They kept returning 2, 3 and 4 times. In all the chaos of so many items that passed through in that weekend, there was one tiny treasure. My mother-in-law had many Christians books and I didn't keep them because we are out of space. But there was a tiny book that I kept for reasons I can't recall. It was called "Jesus: He's Your Final Answer." But I'll get back to that...
One of the days we were there Collins had a meltdown, and I mean meltdown! When she's exhausted, she can't hold it together. Because she was abandoned at 2 and lived 3 years in an orphanage, abandonment issues still surface. We have had her for 19 months and she has had enough time to feel secure and heal somewhat. She's really a normal little girl now. But recently, we've seen fits come out of nowhere and words can fly that are very hurtful. She questions if we love her and if we are really gonna stay. I think she feels secure enough now to really show another side just to see if we really are with her forever, even when she's difficult. During this particular fit, I kept leaving the room. I was in the middle of running an enormous garage sale for goodness sake! In talking to my sister-in-laws, it hit me that I was making things worse. I was doing the opposite of what the book "The Connected Child" taught me to do! I was causing more fear in her because I was leaving her while disciplining her - not smart with abandoned children. Later when she calmed down, she said told me why she was so mad. "Mommy, I was lonely!" Eeek...lesson learned. That night as I was putting her to bed, I pulled out the new little book from the garage sale. I opened to the first page and it said:
"I sometimes feel so alone. Is there anyone out there who cares about me?"
Collins eyes got wide! How timely....and then the book gave this answer.
"God sets the lonely in families." Psalm 68:6
We both got wide-eyed then. I said, "Collins! This is what happened to you. God put you in our family, and you will be with us forever and ever."
That was about 10 days ago. Night before last I was putting her to bed. She prayed first. "Jesus, fank you that You put lonely in families. I LONELY in China!"
