Tori's Stories

Last night I was reading a book that related earthly adoption to God’s adoption of us. I’m not sure I agree with that. Yes, 1 John 3:1 says “See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” I wholeheartedly agree that I am a child of God and he is my father, but I also believe this was true before my earthly parents even thought of me. But, this viewpoint got me thinking. You may believe the same way this book does and that is totally fine, I know I do not have all the answers. From now on, we will not be thinking the way I think, but rather the way the author of this book does. As soon as we accept God into our hearts he becomes our dad. He has adopted us. It doesn’t matter who we are, what we’ve done, what we are capable of doing, or where we came from: we are His children. He accepts us as we are no matter what. We are each special in our own way and we are very needy. We need to be forgiven, we need to be con...

I cuddled a child this afternoon. Not just a normal cuddle, one that lasted a long time, longer than (in my mind) I had time to sit there. Don’t I cuddle often, I live with a bunch of babies? Yes, and no. Life here is crazy. I hang out with the children, but there are usually five of them on me at a time. It feels like all of us are just running from here to there to get things done even though some of us desire to just spend more time with the kids. When we have sick children or new admits, I do have the pleasure of cuddling them. We get to hide out in our apartment and give them as much attention as they desire, but when nothing seems out of the ordinary that cuddling is too far in between. Yes, we hug our kids. Multiple times a day. Hugs, kisses, a pick up embrace, and stopping to chat for a while are all very common delays in my day (and welcomed delays). You see, there are 50 kids here. Every one of them has their own personality, love language, and level o...

I didn’t choose Haiti. I didn’t choose to work with kids. I didn’t choose this life. But, I’m sure glad I followed the path that was paved for me. Most of our kids here are orphans. Some economic, some true, and some abandoned. Whatever the case, they currently do not live with their parents. Many of them have parents waiting. Parents who love them dearly and spend so much time, money, and prayer to get them home-- where God has chosen them to be. There are so many times I want to give each of our children individual attention, praise, love, etc. but there are just so many kids. This is not a family. Children were not meant to be raised by institutions. I’ve cried over the care we simply cannot give. I’ve yearned for insight, for time, for resources, for wisdom, for intelligence, and for capability that we just don’t have. Each one of our children are dearly loved—dearly. We have the privilege of loving them, caring for them, teaching them, and molding them until th...