On October 18th, we celebrated Joshua's 7th birthday. We thought this was a good time to have a celebration to recognize his joining the Aldrich family, so we invited (or tried to -- sorry if we missed some people) everyone we could think of that had encouraged and prayed for us along the long journey to bring him home. It is probably a good thing that not everyone could come. As it turned out, we counted 128 guests that came to our open house. We had another little miracle that day in that the sun decided to shine and the kids were able to play outside. The day before had been an amazing rain storm, so the sun really felt like a miracle!
Joshua thoroughly enjoyed the day. He started out by putting on the new shirt he had picked out himself using birthday money from Grandma and Papa. He went to church in the morning while his sister Sarah, her friend and I decorated and prepared the house. He, dad and the other kids then picked up his birthday cake that he had picked out at Costco and some noodles from Panda express. Sarah and her friend decorated over 100 cupcakes and also helped me prepare a LOT of food. Joshua came home to a house of balloons and cupcakes. He was thrilled. He seemed to enjoy every moment of celebrating with friends and meeting a few people that he didn't know, but that had prayed for him. He was sort of a celebrity for a day.
As I was putting up pictures, laying out blog posts and the very thick book of paperwork that helped bring him home, I had some very surreal moments as those things took me back in time to the many, many months of waiting and trusting that God really had a plan here. Joshua is such a testimony of God's grace displayed and poured out on us here on earth. There are so many miracles marking the trail.
Joshua has come so far in such a few months. He is impressing people everyday with his use of English and his abilities. He has really done well with soccer. On Saturday, I watched the game he and Mark were in for a while and then walked over to the field where little sister was playing. When he came out of the game, he ran over to tell me he had scored 4 goals after I left! When I walked back over, everyone on the sidelines was also telling me about his 4 goals!
Tonight, we had an impressive and captivating display of his English ability as he opened a window into his past for us. Over dinner, we started talking about food and food he had while in China. Joshua was in a mood to talk and finally found enough words to tell us more about his life in China. For about 20 minutes, we all sat around the table completely captivated as he told us all about the "big house" (orphanage), how it was arranged, who was there and their daily schedule. I asked him if he remembered his first day there. To our amazement, he went on to describe the day that ended with arriving at the orphanage in great detail. He clearly has very, very vivid memories of that day. We had always wondered how much he would remember. We also found out he remembers a great deal about his home and family prior to coming to the orphanage. I tried my best to sit down and type out everything I could remember that he had told us -- including his very animated story about a mouse in the house!
We are constantly amazed at this sweet little boy's trust in us and take every opportunity to assure him that he is forever and completely a part of our family.
As he was recounting the details of the day he came to the orphanage and telling us how he didn't sleep well that night because he was scared, I kept thinking about how God knew even then that he had a plan to prosper and not to harm this child. As we were waiting to bring Joshua home, I had wondered about the day he came to the orphanage and had looked back in my journal to see what we were doing. On the morning he woke up in the orphanage for the first time, we were in the home of friends praying for the orphaned children in China. It was just a few days after we had first heard about Anna. We could not have imagined that three and a half years later, we would be bringing a 6 year old boy home from China, but God knew the plan already.
"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11
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