Letters from India! Whoohoo!!

If you are anything like me, you can vividly recall from your childhood those times when you mother would be SO worried about you and you never understood why. You knew you were safe wherever you were, but she still seemed to worry. Whenever I would ask why she was so worried, her response was always “You will understand when you have kids of your own.” Yeah right I thought. I would never worry as much as you do. Well, I am starting to understand what she was talking about.

Now, I don’t have biological kids of my own, but as you will recall from an earlier post, I do foster three of the children that I met in India. I consider these children my own. I think and pray about them daily and long for the day I can return to see their smiling faces. I am starting to realize what my mother was talking about. I have worried about them since the day I left, wondering if they are okay, studying hard, and getting adequate nutrition. I wrote them letters a few weeks ago and have been patiently … okay, rather impatiently… waiting to receive a letter back.

Well, this past Thursday I was having a let’s say, less than pleasant day. I happened to be in Memphis for the day for a few doctor’s visits (we all know how fun that can be), so when I finally returned to Oxford, I was exhausted and in a foul mood. All I wanted to do was eat supper and head to bed. But when I walked in the house I was elated by what I saw on the coffee table. I knew right away what it was… LETTERS FROM MY KIDS!!! AHH! This day just got WONDERFUL!!

I immediately opened it up and found several hand written letters and pictures that my girls drew for me. My heart was gleaming with joy… I am such a proud mother! Although their English is pretty impressive, they don’t always know how to say exactly what them mean, so their letters were written in Tamil. I LOVED this! Yes there was a translated copy included so I knew what they were writing, but still, it was so cool to think that my kids could communicate with me even though we are literally half way around the world from one another and speak completely different languages. I can’t express how excited I am to receive these letters.  The things they wrote to me will stick with me forever. Two of the letters began the same way…

“Dear Foster Parents,

By the grace of the Lord I am fine.”

I had to stop right there and just ponder on that. Remember, these children have nothing but they are perfectly fine because they have the Lord. This just amazes me every time I think about it. I envy how genuine their love is for God. He’s all they have to rely on and I can only hope that I can share that same depth of faith one day.

The letters went on to thank me for accepting them as my foster children and they told me they are praying for me everyday. It is such a peaceful feeling knowing that half way around the world there is someone praying for me. Whether you are a believer or not, knowing that someone out there takes time to think about you everyday is a pretty amazing feeling!!  There was another sentence in two of the letters that made me stop again, “I shall behave as a good child to you.” Not only do I think of them as my children, they think of me as their mother. How AWESOME is that! They want to act like a good child for ME! It makes me want to jump on a plane and head back there right now, just so that I can hug them and tell them I love them.

One thing that was consistent throughout all three letters was that they are “eagerly expecting my photo.” The children at ICMC like to have a picture of their foster parents to show their friends who is taking care of them. I can’t wait to put a package in the mail for them.

They don’t have lined paper at the Promised Land, so my kids had to take the time to use a ruler to draw lines all the way down a piece of paper so that they could write in a straight line. That is just another thing I take for granted. I have more notebook paper than I know what to do with it. Guess I know where some of that extra paper is going J 

Just holding these letters, knowing that they were in their little hands before I got them is a feeling that I can’t quite explain. Their letters are full of hope and love and I see just how happy I have made these children by fostering them. What they don’t know is the joy and happiness they have given me. I have a bond with these children through the Lord that can never be broken. No matter where they may go, I will always think and pray for my children. 

I am officially a worried mother. Thanks for at least giving me a warning Mom…

Remember you may be having a challenging day, but push through it WILL get better!
Emily