GREEN CORDUROY OVERALLS

One of the first times I saw him, he was wearing green corduroy overalls and a striped shirt. I was watching a video of him sitting on the floor of the orphanage playing with a toy train. The plastic trees kept falling over and he would not continue to play until those trees were set back up correctly. He looked so so small. Blonde hair. Deliberate expression on his face. Oblivious to the fact that those two nice people playing with him were his new parents.
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Oh, another tree falls over. He stops and sets it back up. And that was the moment...the very moment he captured my heart. I fell in love with the little boy in the green corduroy overalls. That moment is etched in my minds eye and I will carry it forever. It shares a spot with other memories now. The homecoming. Celebrating a birthday, and then another. Memories of him in his mother's arms or walking hand in hand with his dad. Grabbing his grandpa's nose and running to grandma with something exciting to tell. Playing with him and his sister in the toy room at work. The birth of Aunt Kiki and Aunt Kaki. But at the center of it all sits a little blond boy in green corduroy overalls.
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I have been wondering what I could possibly accomplish for God on this trip and in the lives of the children we will meet. Only a few days...just a drop in the bucket in their lives really. Will it mean anything? Is it worth it? And then a vision of the boy in green corduroy overalls flashed in mind. And I remembered how I wished I could just hug him and maybe play awhile.
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Now I know. Maybe there won't be green corduroy overalls. And maybe I won't get to have them in my life forever...but there is a little boy or a little girl...or perhaps several little ones...that just need someone to sit beside them while they are playing with a train, or a doll, or blocks. I hope there will be hugs. I know there will be love...beyond my own. The Father's love. It will be for Him that our team will love on these kids. It will be for the orphanage workers who are dedicating their lives to these kids. It will be for the families, yet to come and claim their own. And, it will be for the little boy in the green corduroy overalls and his beautiful sister, who will be waiting for us when we get home.--Kathy