hand in hand: friendship

after sending our letter a couple of weeks ago we received many responses of encouragement. one after another...words that told us you were praying for us, crying with us, walking alongside us. rick and i won't ever be able to tell you quite what that meant. tonight was an exceptional example of that support. we spent this evening sitting in our family room with a family that we've known for almost 8 years. they had contacted us after reading the letter about zhang and wanted us to know they were behind us - all the way. they had shared the letter with their four children and as a family decided that they wanted to come and present us with a gift towards our adoption fund. more importantly though, they wanted to come and pray with us. i wish you could have listened in on the prayer of their 10 year old daughter as she prayed for our family...for wisdom...for baby zhang. i wish you could have seen the ziploc baggie full of dollar bills and coins from their youngest child, only a 2nd grader. if only you could have read over our shoulder the letter their 15 year old had written cheering us on in our pursuit. words cannot explain what it meant to have another family of six come, sit in our home, listen to zhang's story, ask questions and pray with us. my wish: that we might all be put into a situation where we have the opportunity for such a rich gift of friendship. rick and i talked tonight about how this will be one of those moments we won't ever forget. this gesture of support was physical. our spirits felt physically lifted when this family stood shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand with our family tonight. these friends wanted us to know they were with us. and they were - all the way.