A call to love

I know I left everyone wondering about our big news.  A week of 600+ kids at VBS put everything else on hold for the past 10 days.  But we do indeed have exciting news around our house!  As I posted a few weeks ago, in the matter of a few days, three different opportunities came to Pete and I for us to host children.  One of the situations came our way via our school newsletter which shared that the school was looking for a host family for a Chinese student.  Call me crazy, but I felt that little newsletter column was written just to Pete and I.  This was the third of the three situations - the other two were personal phone calls requesting us to host specific children under very different circumstances.  I think the other two calls were God's way of opening my eyes to the fact that we could indeed welcome another child into our house.  

This weekend we were able to Skype with the family.  Both families were so excited to have
time to talk through everything from big questions like bank accounts, and medical insurance to smaller matters such as favorite colors and foods.  Our girls both felt less nervous about this new "sister"  after seeing her beautiful smile and hearing her happy laughter.  Hopefully she felt the same way.

This is a unique exchange situation in that her parents want her to come to the US for all four years of high school.  I have to laugh at this because the first hosting call we got was for a 6 week program.  The second was for a 8 month situation.  The third - yep, four years.  God is hilarious isn't He?  School officials have agreed with us that we will commit to hosting one year at a time, but we are all going into the situation understanding that the parents hope for her to be with us for four years.

While our family's big call this summer has been to open our home to this student, I have been amazed at some conversations I have had since my last posting.  God is making big calls all over the place.  A couple of friends have agreed to share their big call here on the blog, and I will be posting them in the coming week.  What amazes me about all of these calls is a singular common thread - love.  Love.  Every call to every person I have spoken to, boils down to the simple act of loving others.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” - Matthew 22:36-40 

So that is our big call, to love this girl as we love ourselves. Who is God calling you to love these days?  I would love to share your story here in the coming weeks.