One

The past week has been a whirlwind to say the very least.  My King is continuing to teach me that His agenda can be trusted and that life with Him truly is an adventure.  Rebecca and I had a great, relaxing week in Chengdu last week.  It was so nice to rest and to spend some time away.  My plan was to see tons of old friends and spend hours catching up with them.  But He  knew that more than that, I needed rest and time to begin processing through the past few months.  It turned out that each of my friends that I was planning to visit was either out of town, had moved, or was busy.  I was pretty disappointed but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

We planned to go back to the Big House on Thursday night, but on Thursday morning, we got a call saying that there was a little boy who needed to be taken to Hong Kong for surgery...on Friday.  After a few quick minutes of thinking we realized that it made the most sense for me to take him because I needed to go to HK for my visa renewal in September anyways.  So, in a matter of minutes we had changed the flights and I was preparing to head to HK.  I found a washer & dryer at the hostel and did a quick load while trying to rack my brain to make sure I was prepared to take a 3 year old through airports, planes, train, and finally to the hospital!

I got to Beijing at 2 am on Thursday night and we left at 7 am on Friday morning.  And I just want to say, I am with the most precious, adorable, sweetest little boy in the whole entire universe.  God is so kind to give me this gift.  After almost 12 hours of travel, delayed flights, storms, harsh customs officials, trains, taxis, and lots of dirty diapers we finally made it to the hospital.  I felt like we were pulling up to the Ritz Carleton when we finally got here! Little buddy was such a trooper, but we were both exhausted.

I feel like I have grown up so much in the past five days.  I have changed more urine bags, watched more mickey mouse, snuggled a feverish baby in the night, cleaned up more vomit, gave more kisses, played cars in the window sill, and smiled and laughed more than ever before in my life. I thought I was coming here to minister to this little boy, but God has ministered to me.  No child should ever have to do hospital stays and surgery without a mama.  I am so honored to play this role in his life right now.  I truly have been given a gift.

Living in a home with hundreds of children is a joy.  But being in a small cubicle in a huge hospital with one child is truly life changing.  God has reminded me that His heart beats for each child individually.  So today, its about the sweet little boy sleeping in the bed beside me.  Its about his little heart, his little body, and his needs.  For this one we will fight.  For this one we will face long nights and sick days.  For this one we will pray and advocate and persevere.  After all, He still would have died...if only for one. 

Can you join me in praying for this One?