West Cocoa Chat

Where do I start? I could start by re-telling you the story of our son’s adoption, a miracle in of itself in my opinion. I could start with the heart of a beautiful, passionate, family loving young woman but perhaps the best place to start is with the author of all things good, God. You see, God has been weaving this amazing tapestry. He has bound together the destinies of 2 families from the conception of Steven, the decision of his birth mother to allow him to be adopted in the hopes of being raised in a Christian environment, the hours long conversation I had with Steven’s birth mother as she struggled to choose a family to raise Steven, his birth where she allowed us to be in the room when Steven arrived into this world, and yes, I could go on and on.

The other part of this equation is that Steven has had siblings one of them being his oldest sister, Liz. Liz took a brave step by first finding information about Steven on this blog. I know, many of you are probably saying to read this blog is being brave in of itself. Nevertheless this all culminated in Liz driving from Orlando to the coast to meet Steven face to face after our game Friday night.

Now family, I have to give "props" to my wife at this point. She was the one who got me thinking from Liz's perspective. I want you too, to put yourself in her situation for a moment. Can you imagine what; let’s go for the “t” word, how about terror. Can you imagine the terror she must have been feeling in not only meeting her brother for the very first time but his adoptive parents as well? I tried to put myself in her situation and the word the Lord laid on my heart was “family.”

I will never forget this beautiful, well spoken young lady (Greg – she is the east coast version of Jessica) walking towards us after Steven’s game. I hugged her and said, “Welcome to the Walker Family.” That night will always be etched on my mind for we gained not only Steven’s sister but we feel like we gained a “daughter” as well.

I knew Liz from the get-go was going to be a positive influence in Steven’s life that very first night. Usually after a loss Steven is about as much fun as a “sermon series on giving.” That night he was actually pleasant and, yes, smiling! Way to go Liz.

The funny thing about that night was Liz and this blog. She would mention something about Steven to which he would ask, “How did you know that?” Liz would look at me, smile, and utter the “b-word,” the blog. Obviously Steven is not a reader of this blog but he might start now.
Did I mention she came to church with us yesterday?

I love our church and I wanted to “show it off” to her because it is such an important part of our faith walk with the Lord. The worship yesterday was outstanding and I could not help but be filled with tears as we sat with Liz. Our good friends, Monty and Sally, were sitting behind us and introduced themselves by saying, “We’re your Uncle and Aunt.” Immediately my mind flashed to Paul’s Earth shattering verse in

Gal. 3:
26”You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is (emphasis mine) neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

We are all family and ours just got a little bigger. Please welcome Liz to our family and have a good day and maybe an extraordinary week.