Best Easter Ever

As I write this, it is Easter Sunday and it looks different than any Easter I can remember. This Easter we have no egg hunt, no big ham dinner, no relatives houses, we went to church at the Saturday service, and (GASP), no basket full of candy and toys left by the rabbit (we did get the kids a chocolate bunny so we are not total scrooges).  This year, as we celebrate the Resurrection, we are putting the finishing touches on our kids’ Life Books.  You see, we leave in three days for Ethiopia, and these books are going with us.

Our agency suggested that we make the Life Books to take and give to the kids before we leave.  When you adopt from Ethiopia there are two trips involved.  The first trip we will meet our new children, spend the weekend with them and then go to our court date to declare to the Ethiopian government that we want to be their new parents.  After that, we have to say goodbye for a few weeks.  We have to come back home, they have to stay in the orphanage and we all wait to get our US Embassy Appointment when we can go back and bring them home.  In between these trips, they will have their Life Books.

We have been working on these Life Books for a month now.  Over the past few weekends, here at our house,  we have been frantically painting rooms, building bunk beds, and setting up toys so that we could take pictures to take with us to give to them.  These pictures of their rooms, our house, the dogs, and all of us go in a scrap book for each of them, that Grandma as been working on in Chicago, so they can learn about us in between our two trips.  And this weekend the pictures and scrapbook pages are coming together to complete the books.  But that is only part of their books.  First, we include their story so they will always be able to remember where they came from.  We will tell about their mother, father, what their village was like and include as much information that we can for them to have a memory.

Next, we include a few pages of pictures of them.  From the photos that we have been sent, we put together pages of them doing what they love.  For our son, we include photos of him taking pictures, playing soccer, and playing with his sister.  For our daughter, photos of her braiding hair, blowing bubbles and swinging with her brother.  All decorated with their names in English so they can learn them in this strange new language. 

Finally, the pictures of their new home are added.  Pictures of their toys, their own beds, their playground, their pool, and their new family are all decorated and labeled to hold onto until we come back.  All of this is put together with love and excitement and when we meet them, after we spend time with them, before we have to leave them, we will hand the books over to them and say, “We love you.  We are coming back for you.  When you want to remember us, when you want to look forward to your new home, when you want to see your new family, just look at your book, and know we are coming.  We promise.”

As I am taking pictures, and watching these finishing touches being placed on these books, I have to stop and think that this is better than any basket, any egg hunt, any dinner I have ever gotten.  This, after 37 Easters of my life, is the first time I really understand what His Easter story is all about, and I am so thankful I am nearly overcome.  These Life Books are just a small picture of what Jesus did for you and me.  He came to earth, spent a short time with us, rescued us before we even knew Him, and He left us a Book to remember. 

He said, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms, and I go to prepare a place for you.”  Then he left us a picture book of streets of gold.  He said, “I will be with you always.” Then He left us His words and our story so that we would remember.  And just before He left He promised, “I am coming back to get you.  Where you are at now is not your home.  I am coming back to bring you home.  You are going to live with Me, just wait a little while and read your book to remember.  When you get lonely, read My Words to you, when you miss Me they will help you remember Whose you are and where you belong.”

This is the best Easter gift I have ever been given.  Once again God has shown me that I have been given so much more by these two kids more than I could ever give them.  Thank you Jesus. 

Happy Easter

Brian