Gotcha

What were you doing on this day 3 years ago? Can you remember? I know exactly where I was and what I was doing right now. First, let me confuse things, it is January 9Th in the late afternoon right now, so its January 10Th in the wee hours of pre-dawn morning in Changsha China. I was lying in an all too hard and uncomfortable twin bed 6 feet away from my wife, who had her own twin bed, praising Him for the blessings that dawn would bring. I was prayerful and anxious enough that I didn't sleep. Those of you who know me know I can almost always sleep, standing up if needed. I was full, ___full, shaken down and overflowing_____ with the abundance the near morning light would bring. Today is gotcha day. Today will be the day I meet my daughter for the first time in the flesh. We had already met in the Spirit. Today would be the Light and the blessings at the end of a long dark tunnel. Today is the day that as a person and as a family life has changed from a candle flicker guiding through darkness to a blinding radiance of Glory. I have gone from a lonely, dark, depressed, single Godless boy fully into a married, happy, glowing man filled with the Holy Spirit, and just to overflow the cup, in a few hours I will be called a dad. In just a few hours I will hold Grace.

Pause for a minute to digest that.

If your an evangelical you smile right here with a knowing sense and you might even sigh. If your a charismatic you shout Amen right here and go running down the aisle waving your right hand the whole while saying 'God is good to me'. If your an unbeliever your most likely clueless of what just was said, but keep reading you'll understand most of the rest anyway.

A few hours from now I will be standing in the lobby of the Dolton hotel under a 2 ton chandelier that looks particularly sparkly this morning. I will be laden with enough baby stuff to go hiking through the Rockies even though we are only going to be on a bus for 30 minutes or so. I will be with 9 other families who are having their own 'moments' right now.

Next I will be riding next to my wife as we struggle to survive the bus trip through the city to a non descript government building.

Some short period after that we walk into a room that has something like 20 families and 20 babies and 25 or so other folks.

Our coordinator calls out the name Yi Meng Chang (pronounced e-mun-chung) and looks at us. A wonderful little girl whose name God changed to Grace was handed to Angie. This is the moment of Gotcha. Grace, or officially, Marilyn Grace Wilson, was not real happy but she was home in her mommas arms. Her face was chapped and her cheeks are red and her tears are flowing. She is way overdressed in a snow suit and several layers of clothes. All this I remember like it was hours ago because it was a moment of clarity. A moment of epiphany. A moment frozen in time for all eternity as the beginning. A moment called Gotcha.

Now Grace is 4 years old (she was 15 months then) and full of life, love, and energy. She knows of China and she knows of her 'sisters' (the other 9 families who walked through this with us) but nobody knows just how much she remembers and understands. All that matters though is she knows she is loved and she is ours, forever and ever amen.
One quick addendum. She is now and always will be our little Gracie, but within hours of returning home we took her and laid her on the alter at church to return her to God. She is ours in flesh to love, care for and raise, but she will always be her Fathers child in Spirit.

" I know the plans I have for you, to prosper you and not to harm you"

"you are fearfully and wonderfully made"

"and I will give you the desires of your heart"