people

"In China I didn't have people," she whispered into the hush of bedtime.

Words of palpable weight.  The air hung heavy and her eyes filled with a quiet and heartbreaking yearning.

"But now you are my people.  I always want to be here with you because you are my people," she finished.

Kisses on tear-stined hair and the fierceness of a hug transferring the whole entirety of love from a heart.

Emma putting words to her joy and her pain.

She waited five and a half years.  For people.

Emma Kate, we are your people, and you are ours.

God always knew, even when we did not.  Our family was always "people"; just now we know each other face to face and heart to heart.  Blessed be.

But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to leave you or turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.                                                                                                           - Ruth 1:16