Dear Teresa- Run The Race

Dear Teresa,

This was the reading today in Church.

Hebrews 12:1-2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Run with endurance the race that is set before us.

This is how you lived your life Teresa, never complaining  and enduring everything set before you .  So this is how Daddy and I will live our lives.   We are going to run the race that God has set before us.   And what God has set before us is to help the orphans of China.  We leave on September 10 to go to China and help open the new "Love You More Heart Home" in Beijing in your honor.

We now belong to a new exclusive group.  One that has a very high membership fee...the loss of a precious child.   We all share the same hopes, wishes , dreams and longings for our children that we have lost.  It is not a group that I thought I would ever belong to.  And because we went into your adoption with our eyes wide open and well aware that God may not share you with us for long Teresa, it still does not make the pain any less.  

Daddy and I have decided not to sit at home and constantly think about what woulda , coulda shoulda have happened.   Our faith tells us this was Gods Will and we have peace with it.  We have decided to put into action the change we want to see in the world.  After you went to Heaven we knew we wanted to help more orphans but were so unsure on how to do it. 

That is when "things " started happening.  As we listened , it became very clear.

God is moving mountains, we are just being his hands and feet here on earth to help Him.

Today Gemma and Lucy's favorite memory of you was your secret hand shake.  You would do this hand shake every  morning as you would get on the school bus, every time I would walk out the door(if even for a second) you had to do it.  So now in your memory they are doing it all the time.  We all love it!!!!  Happy Happy memories.

As we prepare to journey into a new season of Fall and also a new season of life, our journey to China,  we hold you sweet girl so close in our hearts trying to make the world a better place for orphans in your memory.


For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Our treasure is in Heaven !!!

Our last photo together as a family.  Our joy was so different then...