Welcoming home Meddie Grace Nordstrom!
There is no doubt Mrs. Nordstrom understands adoption; her love and tenderness and love for her baby girl is unconditional and deep. Meddie loves her new mommy and clung to her while she took in the 80+ people who were at the airport to greet her. They all spoke funny and stuck their white faces in hers and took lots of pictures!
Mr. Nordstrom has waded through stacks of paperwork, stayed up late praying, endured roller coasters of emotion, made dozens of phone calls, written hundreds of emails and blog posts, traveled halfway around the world (twice!) and in short, has let nothing get in between him and his new daughter.
I have been blessed with Katie's friendship for eight years now, and can never get enough of her bubbly cheerful personality. It has been a joy and honor to get to watch Katie grow spiritually through this adoption process. I see her becoming more like Christ every day!
Katie used to be the only girl in her family. Meddie used to be an only child. Guess what Meddie's name means? "I have a sister". Now they both do. Wow is God good! Meddie also has four new brothers, but (sorry guys!) I didn't manage to get any good pictures of them.
Praise God for his goodness in knitting a family together from across two continents, languages, and cultures.
Gifts for Meddie from her new brothers and sister. |
Human adoption is a lovely but dim illustration of God's adoption of his children. Ephesians 1:5 says, "In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will."
This was not because we reached out to God or deserved to be His children-quite the opposite! As sinners, Ephesians 2 says were dead in our sins and unable to reach out to God, and Titus 3:3 adds that we were "hateful, hating one another." And because God is entirely holy, the penalty for even one sin must be death.
Thankfully, that's not the end of the story. God is merciful and good beyond our wildest imagination. Jesus Christ lived a perfect, utterly perfect life on earth, and willingly suffered a horrible death on a cross, bearing our sin before God as a substitute. He rose again on the third day and now reigns at the right hand of God.
In John 14:6, Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." And Acts 16:31 says, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." Christ has made a way for us to be adopted, to be the children of God. Praise Him!
What a cutie! :-) I love the symbolism of adoption!
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