Love Crosses Oceans

Many of you know that my Dad was born and raised in Holland.  When he was 21, he traveled to the US, looking for adventure.  Long story short, he ended up in Racine, where he met my Mom and, as they say, the rest is history. 🙂

 

My Dad’s family remained in Holland.  By the time I was 7 years old, I was there 7 times. After that, our visits became much less frequent because it was too expensive to travel with 4 and I had started school, so it was more difficult to be gone for weeks at a time.

My last visit was in the summer 2005.  I had the opportunity to travel to Holland for work. When the work week was over, my cousins picked me up in Amsterdam and drove me to Landgraaf, which is on the other side of the country, to stay with my family for the weekend.

I have a lump in my throat as I think about that weekend.  It was so special.  It had been so many years since my last visit, but yet I felt like I was home.

My visit happened while I was going through the most difficult time in my life.  Only a handful of people at home knew what was going on but I knew that my family in Holland knew because my Dad had shared with them so that they could pray for me.

I will never forget, on my last night there, how we sat in this circle, in my cousin’s home and they prayed for me.  I didn’t know what was being said (either because it was in Dutch or because I was crying), but as my Ome Adrie prayed, I was overwhelmed.  I felt so loved both by my family that lives an ocean away and by our Creator – the one who set the stars in the sky and the one that knew every detail of my life – including what I was going through and what was to come.  It was so powerful.  A moment I will never forget.

My Ome Adrie and Tante Gerda are visiting right now.  We are having a wonderful time with them!

I love seeing my Dad with his brother.  It amazes me how much they are the same, even though they haven’t lived in the same country for 40+ years.  They have the same expressions, they stand the same, they seem like twins.  It’s pretty crazy.

They leave on Thursday and I am dreading that day.  Even though this is the way it has always been, I still don’t like that we are an ocean apart.

So what does this have to do with adoption?

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’ve always felt that a piece of my heart is in Holland.  I love my family there even though we never see each other.  It’s a connection that can’t be described in words.  And now…a piece of my heart is in China.  It’s the same kind of feeling.  I’ve never met Josie but I love her so and want to be with her.

I feel that my connection with my family that lives across the ocean will help as we try to understand how Josie feels about the place she was born.  I can imagine she will feel that a part of her heart will always be in China.  While we will most likely never know who her birth parents are, we will always feel a special bond with them.  When we leave China with our daughter, I know that will not be the end of our relationship with China and all that it holds…it will only be the beginning.  We haven’t even been there once yet, but I already hope and pray that we will visit again, just like I anticipate the day when I can bring my family to Holland.

I sure do love this story God is writing with our lives!