Doing Life

In recent weeks and months, the idea of community has come up over and over as a consistent theme in my life. This is a topic I've really prayed about and feel like the Lord is pressing into my heart, causing me to look at it differently than ever before.  There really is a difference between being in someone's life versus doing life alongside them.  While the wording may seem similar, the two concepts are really very different.  Being in someone's life is the type of casual relationships we have with others, the ones that we get the occasional text message from, the annual FaceBook birthday message, perhaps even dinner once or twice a year.  These are people you love but they aren't part of the intimate details of your life, they don't truly know your heart, understand your struggles or even what brings you true joy.  What does doing life with someone look like?  I feel like God is continually revealing this to me. Before we started down our adoption journey, I had an idea but since then, this idea has taken on a completely different shape.  Doing life with someone is all about being real, authentic, genuine.....it's knowing and caring deeply about another person, it's taking the time to ask about struggles, offering to pray for them, making a consistent effort to spend time with them, loving them through the good days and the bad.  It's the people in your life that see you struggle, celebrate right beside you, your joy and struggle is their joy and struggle.  It's community at it's truest definition. 

We are coming off a weekend of celebrating our first official Chinese New Year.  Admittedly, before Shay entered our lives, I knew very little about this holiday or the significance.  In terms of holidays, it's the single most important one for countries or cities where a large portion of Chinese live.  While Shay is from Taiwan, it is technically a Republic of China, therefore all the major Chinese holidays and festivals are recognized and celebrated.  We started our celebrations last week when our friends Nick and Cara (Guma and Shushu to Shay) invited us over for dinner.  We walked into their home to see it beautifully decorated, complete with a delicious Chinese dinner, fortune cookies and even a ceremony where we released Chinese lanterns. Nick and Cara are doing life with us, walking with us, praying for us and celebrating every simple step (like when new photos arrive of Shay and we obsess over every detail).  This past weekend, we were blessed to be welcomed by lots of other Taiwanese adoptive families who gathered from several different states to celebrate.  While we are new to this community, it was another reminder of how God is surrounding us with genuine and authentic relationships.  As we are prepare to become parents, I can see now more than ever the value of community in our lives, right where we are.  We are so thankful for the people doing life with us:  our families, our friends (the ones both near and far), and even our new extended adoptive family--our community is growing, changing and expanding.