HOME

I have been "home" now for 7 months.  But what does "home" really mean?  I usually don't experience culture shock or have any issues transitioning back and forth from different international experiences.  And I would say this time is the same except that hindsight has provided more clarity.  I thought returning to life as I had built it for the last 15 years would be easier.   But Cleveland is not my home, it is a city where I work.  My condo is not my home, it is a place where I sleep and eat while I am working at NRHS.  NRHS is not my home either, it's my job, (and a really great one!)  What I thought was home for me for many years seems so distant, it's different, it's lonely and it's hard to feel reconnected.  So the last 4 months has left me with the question:  where is my home? and what is "home" to me anyway? And then I read this verse:  "God sets the lonely in families..."    "God settles the solitary in a home..."  (Psa 68:6)

(Excerpt from Barnes' Notes on the Bible):

God is the friend of the orphan and the widow; and, in like manner, he is the friend of the cast out - the wandering - the homeless; - he provides for them a home. The meaning is, that he is benevolent and kind, and that they who have no other friend may find a friend in God. At the same time it is true, however, that the family organization is to be traced to God. It is his original appointment; and all that there is in the family that contributes to the happiness of mankind - all that there is of comfort in the world that depends on the family organization - is to be traced to the goodness of God. Nothing more clearly marks the benignity and the wisdom of God than the arrangement by which people, instead of being solitary wanderers on the face of the earth, with nothing to bind them in sympathy, in love, and in interest to each other, are grouped together in families.

If there has been one burning truth throughout my transition back "home" that has kept me grounded and focused, it has been my desire to have a family.  I have worked diligently to complete the demands of a "home" study and other immigration requirements so I can bring a Salvadoran boy home to my family as soon as possible.  When my desire first started I though it would be just the two of us.  But as this journey has developed, I see that my family is really formed of some incredible people called parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, and siblings that are working just as hard as me to help make this dream happen.  They are my "home".  I can truly say that I will never be lonely or alone as I expand our family.  What joy! 

This Christmas I am setting out to be with my future forever family member.  I will spend Christmas Day until Jan. 6th at Love and Hope Children's Home.  At this time I also get to hand deliver my "dossier" that has all the stamps, approvals, seals, staples and signatures of about 30 documents that say I meet their requirements.  I will hand it to my lawyer who will turn it into the government.  They will have several meetings to approve me and then "match" me to the child.  There are 5-6 more steps after that.  I am praying that this process will be complete before Tonio's 9th birthday on August 5th, 2013.  However, a more worldly view from my agency has said that I probably have another 12 month wait.  Well, God can change all of that, and since he is the creator of all things including the family organization, I will rest in his timing and marvel over the miracle of setting the lonely in families and the solitary in a home.