Tori has been waiting for this opportunity all year long! She was finally chosen and today was the day that she got to share about her life!! She began preparing on Friday night, listing out all of her favorite things and her proudest accomplishments and selecting the pictures of her life that she wanted to share with the class. Last night we gathered different items from Africa to show the class. This morning we went early to class to set everything up and I stayed to watch her give the presentation! I was so proud of her and found my heart swelling up thinking how much our hearts are a like. Especially at this moment....very tender about life in Benin. It gave Tori so much joy to talk about our life there. She has such a story to tell and when she talks you can see her come alive in a way that you may not see otherwise. We have been home 6 months now and there is a reality sinking in for all of us that we are not returning to what is most familiar to us...we are moving forward into a new life where God is doing a new thing. The Lord is providing for us at each turn and gently leading us on our new path. We are thankful for his gentle ways as we grieve what we have left behind and press on in our journey with Him.
By the way, Tori said her proudest moment was when she was baptized and when our family adopted Lael. At that point she held up a picture of Lael holding her passport! So precious!
4 comments:
How sweet! I remember those moments from elementary school and I hope that Tori will continue to have such vivid precious memories of her life in Africa and the work that you all did!!
Thank you so much for your congratulations on my engagement! As you can imagine, I am so excited and still a little in shock!! I love having older cousins who I love, respect and look up to. Having you and Becky as role models (as well as both of our parents) for being a Christian woman, wife and mother is such an honor for me! Man I love my family!! Thank you Kelley for always being so sweet!
I love hearing about children sharing their faith at school! What an opportunity she is seizing to share Christ with others!
Student of the week! That is exciting! It's so good to see Tori smiling and having fun at school. To say that her heart is like yours is about the best thing you could say about anybody.
Thank you for your continual prayers for our family. You have been and continue to be an incredible blessing in my life!
I met Randy at the Duct Tape Marketing intensive this week. He told me about your missionary experiences in Benin. I was amazed, because I was a missionary with Mercy Ships onboard the Anastasis from 2002-2003. How incredible that your daughter's biological mother was able to have her surgery onboard our ship, and come to know the Lord!
I wanted to encourage you that I understand how difficult the reentry process is. It's long, lonely, confusing, and painful. But there is character formed and lessons learned along the way that are pricess. Feel free to write if you ever need to vent with someone who "gets it"!!
P.S. I love your song list. Tomlin and Redman are my favorites. I use their songs all the time when I lead worship at our church.
Post a Comment