I have been blessed in the past several weeks to see glimpses into our daughter's life in her orphanage in China, thanks to the families who have traveled before us. I was struck by this particular picture, and how it resembled pictures I have of my older children's preschool classes. You know the pictures, taken on field trips or the last day of school. Pictures taken as you beam with pride as your precious little punkin lifts her dress up or picks her nose. Pictures you look back on years later with bewilderment, wondering where the time has gone.



Couple this photo with these....



and you can be tempted to think for a minute that these children have it pretty good. Awesome playground. Clean. Bright. Colorful. Then you add this one....



And you remember. It's an orphanage. As nicely as it may be decorated, it is home to over 500 children with no mommies or daddies. Our daughter is one of them, but praise God, not for long. It grieves my heart to know that we will leave so many precious children behind. This is not how children should grow up. This is not how children have to grow up. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..." James 1:27