The Light

"The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."  John 1:5

This verse rolled around in my head all day yesterday amidst the chaos of surviving another day of life with my 10 battered and abused little boys.

Admittedly some days are more difficult than others in my not so picture perfect orphanage sort of foster family.  Yesterday and well... the day before that one too and actually most days in the past week have been exceptionally challenging.

"Why?" you might ask.

Well to answer that, I'd probably start telling you about the chronic complex trauma my boys have experienced over the years or the number of caregivers who have left them in the past and then I'd probably try to explain the fall and why there is just so much sin and pain in this world.  Maybe I'd try to help you make sense of the number of times I was cursed at yesterday or the reports from school my boys got or why certain children throw tantrums at bedtime or the fist fight at dinner that seemed to go on for 2 hours.... but truthfully - it does no good trying to make sense of the chaos sometimes.  It's just simply that - chaos.

I don't know what the future holds for my boys - how many years they'll live in an institution or whether they'll ever break the generational cycle of abandonment that seems to plague many of my boys extended families or whether they'll grow up to be healthy fathers and husbands who know how to respect others - but I have read the end of THE BOOK and I know how this whole thing ends.  Jesus wins.  He wins.  He wins.

In the meantime... I'm going to try to cling to the fact that the darkness can not overcome the light of Christ.

Please pray for us.  Pray for my boys.  Pray for them by name if you would... Victor, Gustavo, Angel, Guillermo, Cesareo, Kevin, Arturo, Isreal, Jose Daniel, Jose Antonio