Little Emma died today.  She came to Sarah's Covenant Homes, in India, last fall as a fragile newborn.  She had spina bifida and hydrocephalus.  She was emaciated, ignored, rejected.  She was found by a street sweeper, outside of the hospital doors, I believe.  Upon rescue, she was brought to SCH, barely alive.  Well, if I remember right.  She was placed in Sarah's arms who immediately rushed her INTO a hospital that could provide her with life-saving fluids, medicine, heat, etc.  Emma fought hard to live.  She should have died over and over but she was such a fighter.  I think she had more courage and tenacity in her short life, than I have had over my relatively long one.  I give up easily.  I waver in my faith, in my endurance, in my resolve.  If I had been Emma, I may never have made it past one breath outside the womb.  I would have likely given up. 

Emma lived for months.  She gained weight, she gained a "following" of loving Christian people all around the world who prayed for her, payed for her surgeries, sent her special blankets and toys….she even had a family who wanted to adopt her.  Emma lived a huge life in a few months.  Her impact has been huge.  I admire her so much.  I will miss seeing her pictures posted on facebook, as her cheeks filled out, her eyes glistened, and she learned to smile.  Gosh.  I'm sure that Jesus is enjoying this child immensely today.  I'm sure our Father is being the best daddy ever to her.  I'm so glad she is with Him now….in His arms, surrounded by His angels.  She is whole and perfect and loved and redeemed. 

I'm going to try to fight harder to live in her memory.  Not just to draw breath….but to LIVE.  When my broken body reaches the gates of Heaven one day, and I run to the arms of Jesus, and receive my new body, my new name….I want Him to be as proud of my fight as I know He is of Emma's. 

She started out an orphan, but became an inspiration, a child of the King, an example.  Love transformed her and today, we grieve for her passing.  So many of us have cried for her in the past hours…..tears of a mom, a grandma, an auntie and uncle….she will be missed.  She will be missed.  She's not an orphan anymore and she will be missed.

Today on Mother’s Day, I am contemplating mothers of the Bible–and my heart
can’t move on from dwelling on Moses’ mother, Jochebed. We may be familiar
with her story: hiding her newborn son for three months, sending him down
the river to be taken in and adopted by Pharaoh’s daughter. What deep
heartache she must have felt–releasing her son into another’s care, acting
out of desperation, and all the while unsure of the path that would follow.
What same emotions may birthmothers who give their children up for adoption
around the world feel? As we pray for our future children to join our family
through adoption, let us be faithful to pray for those birthmothers who gave
our children life.

In the midst of Jochebed’s sorrow, let us also consider how the Lord used
her for such great purposes. He equipped her with a fierce instinct to care
for her child; he paved the way through strategic planning; he worked in her
heart through faith in believing a greater purpose for her child, through
trust in the One who holds us all, and through belief that though we may not
always understand the circumstances around us, the Lord works for His glory
and our good. May we be both encouraged and challenged by her.

It's friday afternoon and the weekend of Mother's Day.  Many of us are making plans for special outings with our kids and families.  We may have reservations for a yummy brunch that involves no cooking or clean-up for mom.  We may be looking forward to homemade crafts and gifts our kids will bring home from school very soon.  These are Happy Mother's Day thoughts.  I am a happy mother.  I have 4 wonderful children who will celebrate me on Sunday. 

I have a very heavy heart.  As I anticipate Mother's Day and bright spring flowers and love and affection….I am also acutely aware and aching for the children in the world without a mother.  I am aching for the mothers who are waiting for their children who have not yet come home.  I am aching for the women who desperately want to be mothers.

What do we do with all this?  How do I joyfully accept and enjoy my rightful celebration of Mother's Day and still acknowledge the pain of my fellow sisters around the world, who are hurting this weekend?  I need to trust the Lord to help me do this one with grace and sensitivity and humility.  I need to be grateful, and hopeful, and considerate.  We all do. 

I wish you all a very good, and happy Mother's Day….in Jesus precious name.

Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of livestock; and when they saw the land of Jazer and the land of Gilead, that indeed the region was a place for livestock, the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spoke to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the leaders of the congregation, saying, "ataroth, Dibon, Jazer, Nimrah, Heshbon, Elealeh, Shebam, Nebo and Beon, the country which the LORD defeated before the congregation of Israel, is a land for livestock, and your servants have livestock." therefore they said, "If we have found favor in your sight, let this land be given to your servants as a possession. Do not take us over the Jordan."
And Moses said to the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben: "Shall your brethren go to war while you sit here? Now why will you discourage the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the LORD has given them? Thus your fathers did when I sent them away from Kadesh Barnea to see the land. For when they went up to the Valley of Eshcol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel, so that they did not go into the land which the LORD had given them. So the LORD's anger was aroused on that day, and He swore an oath, saying, "Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me, except Caleb the son of Jephunneth, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord.
Numbers 32: 1-12