My Journey of the Heart-Part Two

Go here to read the full post. Here's an excerpt:

"I ended Part One by telling you how God prepared me to take on the challenge of adopting an HIV+ child. I have not yet told you how my husband, Rob, reacted when I showed him Riley's picture. I don't recall his exact words but it was something to the effect of, "He's really cute but I don't think I can handle HIV". I asked him why not. I asked him to pray about it. He did.

One of the reasons Rob was reluctant at first is that he thought Riley having HIV meant we would be watching our son die before we did. I gently explained to him that this is not true, and that children with HIV have normal life expectancies! He'll have to explain in his own words sometime about how God changed his heart, but it certainly did change. Soon after that we committed to adopting Riley.

The story isn't over, however. I began to follow other families' adoption journeys. I read with fascination about how well Masha, one of the girls I had met this past summer who has Down syndrome, was adapting to her new adoptive family. I saw other children I had met being adopted: Angela (also with Down syndrome) and Ruslan (cerebral palsy), and I followed their journeys. All three are doing SO well in their new families, and yesterday I had the privilege of seeing a video of Ruslan WALKING with his new walker! Oh what joy that brought to my heart! It was during this time that God was really teaching me the impact a loving family can have on a child, how amazing their recovery is, and watching them literally come alive."