No, not Freddy the fish (see earlier post). Fred. Our friend, Fred (and Patty and girls). They invited us to bring the kids over to fish in their pond and stay for supper. A great time with them as usual. R&T both caught little bluegills and something else (I can't remember the name). They really had fun. Fred and Patty's girls were a big help in keeping the hooks out of someone's eye, hair, or some other body part. Lisi went along and wrestled with their collie puppy for about four hours straight. To the point of sheer exhaustion.
Back to Fred and Patty though. I don't think they'll read this (I'm not sure they are blog hopper-type people). But I want to say how much they mean to us. When we went through our tremendous sadness with us losing our baby and countless other losses, they never came to us and said, 'why don't you think about adopting?'. They had these lovely little girls before us and finally after much thought and prayer and a clear feeling that adopting was for us, we went to them and asked them about their journey to bring their girls home. Fred said, 'I was hoping you'd ask'. And thus began a very wonderful and scary journey to bring Rayna home. We had the usual ups and downs with the paperwork chase and they calmly encouraged through each step. They wrote a fantastic letter to the People's Republic of China to say we were fit parents (I hope they still think so!). Patty handed me a sheet with a name of a home study place the very day I prayed desperately that I wanted it 'just handed to me and then I'd feel it was a real sign we should do it'. She had no idea she doing something incredible that day. They showed us (and still are showing) by example the utmost love they have for their girls. And now we have our family. And their now-teenage daughters are still lovely, wonderful and kind, and are such a good example to our three.
So there you have it. I could write little tributes to other friends in our town too, but will save that for another post some day!
Such a wonderful testimonial!
ReplyDelete:)
ReplyDeleteI had no idea how special this post was going to be when I dove into it. Thanks for sharing.
The 1st (and only time, come to think of it) that I was at F&P's, the girls (who were a LOT younger!)were down by that pond catching frogs when we got there! It was Darla F and I and we had a special time.
Ohhhh, it was SO neat to see pictures of Fred & Patty's girls! They were just tiny little things when we left there, and now I can see they're growing in to very beautiful young women.
ReplyDeleteIt touches the heart! We are grateful for those that go before, those that we walk with at the same time, and those that we can encourage that come after us.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. And about that keeping hooks out of people thing... I can't hardly be present when the boys are fishing with other little kids. Hooks are flying, and I'm just in a total panic that someone's gonna get "hooked". Egads.
ReplyDeletewhat a touching tribute. it's so nice to have those who have gone before - makes me think of that hymn "where others conquered we can win"
ReplyDeletethanks for your comment on our blog. we are doing domestic adoption. maybe i will have to email you sometime, i feel like i have a zillion questions about raising an adopted kid and could use some expert advice:)