Not Seven Times, but Seventy Times Seven

Jesus was asked how many times we should forgive our brother.  He answered not seven times, but seventy times seven.   Similarly, we might ask “Jesus how often am I to have faith in the toughest of days?”  He would say not seven times, but seventy times seven.

We learned yesterday that the adoption process here is again under scrutiny and, at least for a time, adoptions are again closed.  Today we had our last day with our 4 yr old son;  we are not sure when we will be invited to see him again.  I have faith.

The drive to the orphanage this morning was quiet.  We all just simply looked out the windows to the world outside.  To our left, across the open steppes of the valley, were the foothills of Kazakhstan.  To our right, the impressive snow capped Tien Shan Mountains, with their peaks at over 16,000 feet, following us all the way to the orphanage.

Once there, our son greeted us in the usual way.  We walked around to the back corner of the orphanage where his group’s playground is.  He has learned to look for us around the same time every morning.  When he sees us, he struts out the front gate and lets himself out with a smirk that tries to hold back a smile.

We then went to the old and worn out park just outside of the orphanage gates, and he enjoyed a yogurt, his favorite treat.  He sat in his mama’s lap contently, and from time to time pulled her curls over her eyes.  Later we sat him down with our interpreter, and explained to him we would not be there tomorrow, or the next.  We told him we needed to see a big man, and that he had to tell us when we could come back.  As he sat contently, he would nod his head in acknowledgement, but then would ask, are you coming back today?  No, we would answer.  This repeated itself several times.  He noticed Mama was crying, and her sadness seemed to help him understand a little better that today was different.

I recently learned goodbye has its roots in old English, from an abbreviation of: God be with ye.  We shared our final moments with him just outside his group’s play room.  He had just bathed and was only wearing underwear and the new sun hat we had given him.  We left our photo album with his nanny with pictures of us and his brother and sister and asked that she show it to him from time to time.   He hugged us, we told him we loved him.  He blew us a kiss and pulled the door shut...  … Goodbye.