Football, Fishing and Fireflies

It has been about two and one-half weeks.

A mere nineteen days.

That's how long he's been in America.

Here's what we have so far:

He knows our address ("244 Beast Onion Boulevard, Bethlehem") and our phone number.  He  knows how to get to the fishing spot at the Lehigh River from our house.  He knows how to get to our church and where Phil works.  He has an eye for detail and has snagged himself more lures caught in trees, bushes and water than he has fish.

He LOVES to go fishing. If he could he would fish 24/7!

He LOVES football.He is attending soccer camp all this week and is really enjoying himself!

He loves to eat corn on the cob. ("In Latvia we give this to pigs but I like.  It is good.")

He has never seen a firefly before and set out to catch some.  He caught a few and kept opening the top of the container so they could breathe. He later released them outside.

He LOVES hanging with the gang at church youth group and will be going on his first outing on Saturday (tubing down the Delaware River).

He really enjoys talking to people.  He has no inhibitions about striking up a conversation with kids at church, Phil's co-workers or lifeguards at the town pool.

He loves Peter and jokes with him and talks with him all the time. 

Even the dogs have taken to him!

Kris does not hesitate to contribute his share to the family life.

Kris has blended into life in America, life with us, as if it were meant to be from the beginning.

Despite a very rough beginning in his life, Kris has demonstrated a great deal of courage, grace and compassion.

Eileen tells him periodically how much we love having him in our family.  She even tied the story of Jonah and heeding God's call to our story of heeding God's call to bring him home.  He enjoyed that!

The other day I had the chance to ask him how he felt about being a part of our family. 

"I like this family.  It is good family.  You are funny and I am funny.  I like this family."

They Have Names

We are surrounded by numbers.  Some of those numbers are seen and some are unseen.  From our Personal Identification Number for our ATM card to the countless "0" and "1" of the computer programming language that make this blog possible.  Think of how many numbers infuse our daily life.  Here's a short list of just a few:

Social Security number
Driver's License number
Phone number
Checking Account number
PIN number
Interest Rates
Prices of goods and services
Money
Channels on your TV
Sizes of clothes
Temperature
Clocks
Speed Limits
Credit Card numbers
Calendars ...

The list goes on and on.

Here's another number for you: 143,000,000.  That's the estimate number of orphans in the world.  I would guess that most people don't even know about that number.  Perhaps they would think that such a number was an exaggeration. Up until three years ago I was ignorant of that number.  Not a clue!

But my introduction to those kiddos came through one young woman - Nelya.  She opened my eyes and my heart to the world of the 143,000,000.  Through her I was introduced to a hosting organization called New Horizons for Children.  Every winter and every summer a team of people from New Horizons travels to Eastern Europe and the Far East to visit with some of the 143,000,000.  Then that team posts pictures of some of those kiddos with a very brief description of their observations.  But there are no names under those photos - only numbers (that is required by rule).  Anyone who has hosted an orphan has spent hours looking at those photos and wondering what those kiddos are thinking, what they dream of, what are their hopes and aspirations.

Last week, Eileen and I had the privilege of spending a week at a Christian camp in Ergli, Latvia.  It was probably the best part of our time in Latvia.  We were blessed to spend four glorious days with about 56 of those 143,000,000 and approximately 15 fantastic camp leaders and helpers.  We recognized so many of the faces we had seen from the hosting pictures and some we had never before seen.

They have names.

They are courageous.

They are beautiful.






 
They sing.

They dance.

They are smart.

They are tenacious.

They laugh.

They smile.

They have voices.

They have dreams.

 They are not numbers.

They are our children and our brothers and sisters - every last one of them.