Transformed

"You never know the things that are going to transpire to get you home"

It might be my favorite line from one of my favorite movies - Apollo 13. Jim Lovell is speaking about an incident that occurred while he was an aircraft carrier pilot - and how all his instrumentation lights went out on his approach back to the carrier. He was ready to ditch - then as he looked down, there was a big and bright and beautiful trail of bioluminescence being produced from the carrier guiding him home.

I think the Lord often works like that - He in His graciousness "makes it dark for us" so that His light is able to shine and guide us to the places He wants us to see. 

No more journey can describe that than the one that began three years ago for Mao Ai Liu in a stark government office when she met me. 

At 12 months home - we were all struggling to find our new place and space. Cami was struggling with how to manage all that she was feeling and we were struggling with how to help her. The bioluminescence trail was there - not always shining bright and we didn't always know where it was leading…but it was there. God in His graciousness would give us a glimpse now and then of "home".    

 2 years home - the trail is blazing bright. It is a hard one to follow, but we all have learned, including Cami, that our God never ever lays out the wrong path. It might not be the easy path - but it always brings us home. 

 3 years later - we have landed on the aircraft carrier called "safely home". There are moments now - instead of days - when the fears of flying without instrumentation take one or another us over, but with our feet firmly on deck, we remind ourselves who guided us here. 

Cami's transformation over the past three years is nothing short of miraculous. God has so richly blessed her with everything she needs - excellent medical care, amazing teachers and a wonderful school where she is accepted and loved and challenges, family that sometimes doesn't always share biologically but always loves her, and friends who see beyond the outer layer and have her back all the time. 

She is beginning to see who laid out that path of bioluminenscence for her and beginning to really own that relationship as hers. 

She is transforming into the most amazing young woman. She has a heart that is filled with compassion and understanding, a gift of artistic abilities that defy all sense, a sense of humor that always makes me smile and is wise beyond her years. At least a couple of times every day, I stop in wonderment and awe that I actually get to be her mom. 

What you don't see in these pictures is how our lives have been transformed. You don't see two very broken grown ups dealing with their own fears and anxieties became more devoted to the Jesus who brought them first into the dark places to then gently and lovingly hold them up and guide them home to a place where our transformed hearts are just a tiny, little bit more like His.