"Boy, Don't You Know That There Are Orphans in Africa..."

Eli came home on May 1st. It is hard to believe he has only been home a year, because I can’t remember what our family was like before he was here. I can honestly say that when I look at those two boys, I see my two sons. I don’t see one biological and one adopted, I see the two Agnew boys.

Yet there are still moments when I say something that reminds me how much he is mine. Sometimes if he gives me a look or I have a flashback of our time in Ethiopia, I remember for a moment what it was like when we were strangers. More often than that, I find myself forgetting that he hasn’t been with us all the time.

Which brings us to what happened last week.

Eli loves to eat. He wouldn’t stop eating if we didn’t intervene. Rarely does he ever not seem interested in his food. If he isn’t gobbling the food down, you know something is wrong.

So the other day when he seemed disinterested in his food, I tried to get him to eat. When he still seemed unwilling to try the food, I uttered a phrase that I stopped midway when I realized what I was saying:

“Boy, don’t you know that there are orphans in Africa that would…”

And in that moment, I was reminded of how far God can bring a little boy and his family. He looked into my eyes, I looked into his, and I was so thankful for how far we have come.

He ate his food, and I chuckled at how things will never be the same.