The Years the Locust Have Eaten

L to R: Government Officer, me, Judge, Kregg, Orphanage Director

During the court hearing that would make them our sons, the orphanage director told a story that broke my heart. It was the first time I had heard it.

Background First:
In Magadan, Siberia the only people we saw in charge of anything were women. The judge was a woman, the government officer for the adoption was a woman. The orphanage director was a women. The court officials were women. 

The government officer, after hearing my husband recite from memory the birthdays of our five biological children, asked me if there were any other men like my husband in America. "Would you please send them to us. A good husband here is one who doesn't drink too much or beat you too much," she said through our translator. She couldn't believe this man knew so much (their birthdays?!!!) about his children.

Additionally, our boys were taken away from their biological parents because of neglect. By the time the boys were almost 4 and 5, their parents had used up their last chance. Their own family members, none of whom wanted or could care for the boys, are the ones who filed the complaints against the parents. The demon in the bottle had dried up the hearts of these young parents toward their two helpless little boys.It is only through the Lord's Mercy that they survived. Joshua, the older one, remembers them "drinking vodka and then falling down." Remember, he was only about 5 when he was taken away from them and they haven't seen them since that day.


Now to the story:
All the workers in the orphanage were women. But there was a man who worked as a janitor and groundskeeper. The orphanage director told the judge that Joshua used to follow this man around asking him if this man would be his father.


Yes, I started weeping. Joshua wanted so badly to belong to someone. He wanted so badly to be important to someone. Anyone. 


In Russia, orphans are turned out of the orphanage when they turn 16. Can you imagine how he would have tried to fill that gaping hole in his heart--looking for someone, anyone to love him? It is terrifying. 


But, because of the Lord's Faithfulness, our boys' story has a happy ending. He has brought them so far in the past 6 1/2 years. We stand in awe of what He has done. 


Yesterday, I was walking through our study where Caleb had his books and computer spread across the table. Beside his things I saw this note written in Joshua's handwriting. 

And then tonight, he handed me this:

Even if he never learns his spelling or his punctuation, I would take that heart over scholastic achievement any day. The Lord has brought him to a glorious place and the years of desolation have been replaced by a heart so filled with Love that it overflows on all of us around him.

Joel 2:25-27

“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
   the great locust and the young locust,
   the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.
You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
   and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,
   who has worked wonders for you;
never again will my people be shamed.
Then you will know that I am in Israel,
   that I am the LORD your God,
   and that there is no other;
never again will my people be shamed.