We celebrate Earth Day each year on April 22nd.

It’s quite grand:

We pop a big bowl of buttery popcorn and watch a Nature movie.

AND this pretty much sums it up. 🌎

I have learned that a PICTURE perfect Pinterest PARTY isn’t always necessary when celebrating something -sometimes it’s the simple things.

This year I chose the Chimpanzee Nature film by Disneynature. We watched it about 5 years ago and I basically cried through the whole movie.

We were adopting Theodore at the time and in the movie there is a remarkable relationship that takes place between a baby/ toddler chimpanzee named Oscar and his faithful, loving mother, Isha.

In the jungle of Africa, Isha ends up dying and Oscar is left all alone to fend for himself. He is unable to do so. The precious baby nearly starves to death from not only weight loss but with no other chimpanzee in the clan to groom him.

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Spoiler Alert

The plot has an amazing climax. The most unlikely member of the clan takes him in and begins to give up his own food to feed Oscar. In a land with sparse food we see the most sacrificial love. His name is, FREDDIE, and HE IS THE HIGHEST RANKING MALE of the clan. He has spent his life in many ways taking care of #1 and here we find him laying down his own life to bring Oscar back to a vibrant life and loving relationship.

This time around of watching the movie, I was moved in a different way. I have now been on the other side of adoption. So my tears this time were from a place of deeper understanding. Adoption has taught me so many lessons. Lessons that keep coming. I have many areas to continue growing as I care for and love the ones in our own little “jungle.”

As Henry trusts us more and more we are seeing him finally begin to unlock the memories of his last home before us. We had a light bulb moment this week where he talked about one aspect of it for the first time. It has been 16 months with no mention of the last home.

As his mother. it is a fine line between being open about it and tenderly waiting on him to be vulnerable to share. When he shared, God gave me the space to sit in it with him. I held him close as he talked. I cried tears that dripped over his shoulder as he shared.

A new friend and pediatrician happened to ask me later that day how he is doing. She shared a brilliant word picture for me. A recap she explained is his brain as having cracks like a sidewalk has. The cracks are present yet over time with:

LOVE

TRUST

and CLOSENESS

Henry can have new concrete laid over the cracks. The cracks are under there yet they are less obvious.

What a wonderful day it was for me to receive these reminders. Words to minister to my heart.

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What a privilege that he opened up to me and Lord willing will continue to as we all continue to wake each day with the faithful, consistent Love that God has for us. My love for our children is just a drop in the bucket of HIS DEEP LOVE!

““And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8: 38-39