Jenna, on the Birth parent/First Parent blog has started a wonderful series on Faith and Adoption that I would encourage you to read. Today, she has a beautiful post on Praying for your Placed Child.

Faith has also played a major role in our adoptions, both in how we chose to proceed, and how we have turned to God for strength when difficulties arose. I awoke this morning feeling that I needed to share a story that a friend sent me yesterday. My friend is Chinese, and has been helping us with Caleb's adjustment by allowing us to come to her home on Fridays so Caleb can have a place where he can speak Chinese and be fully understood.

Yesterday, when Caleb was having a huge meltdown, I called her to see if he would be willing to listen to someone explain the consequences of his actions in a language he could understand. I knew it was probably a foolish attempt since he was out of control, but thought I would give it a try. As I expected, he refused to listen and continued to rage, doing everything he could to get away from the phone.

My friend could clearly sense that the stress level in our home was at the breaking point, and she sent me an encouraging email that I would like to share with you.

A woman had some blue birds that were living in her back yard. One year a rather large storm came and the woman became concerned and worried for the bluebirds, so she went outside to check on them. Sure enough, she found that the baby bluebirds had been driven out of their nest by the storm.

She tried to pick up the baby birds to put them back in the nest, but in doing so was attacked by the adult birds. She said that she found herself speaking out loud to the parent birds, saying "It is OK, I am here to help you"...but they of course didn't understand.

She realized through this experience, that it was very similar to our lives and how the Lord tries to comfort us and communicate with us, but we don't always understand.

It reminds me of Caleb's situation right now. You are trying to teach him limits and do much for him as a mother, but he doesn't understand.

Remember it takes time. It takes time.

Thank you dear friend for your faith and inspiration in sending me this story. Yes, we are indeed many times like the parents of the baby bluebirds and don't truly understand when someone is trying to help us. We don't have the perspective and understanding that God has for our lives, and so we may try to to attack the person who is actually trying to help us. I know Caleb doesn't understand yet why he needs boundaries and limits, but I do know that I needed the reminder that he will over time. Often it just takes time.

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