Grandparents, you may want to sit down. We have decided that yes, we will adopt a boy and a girl. The age range will be from 0-12 months. They may be biological siblings and they may not. I told Jim that perhaps we'll be thinking differently on our LONG plane ride home from Ethiopia with the babies:-) Cole and Julia asked to watch videos of them when they were little yesterday. I can't believe how little they were...so cute, so funny. But, it made me SO excited to go through that age again. We were able to spend time with our nieces this past weekend at my sister, Melissa's wedding. (Congrats, Melissa...it was beautiful.) The girls are so sweet and SO funny...all three under the age of three. Again, it's just such an awesome reminder of the joys of what is to come. And yes, it also reminds us of the struggles, too. We're expecting it, though. Jim and I thoroughly enjoy our Sunday naps, which will most likely dwindle away, but it's worth it. When we tell people we're adopting from Ethiopia, and babies at that, they tend to say one of three things: "Wow"...quickly followed by..."NOT ME...I'm done with those days!" or "Wow"...that's great!" What made you choose Ethiopia?" and finally..."What do Cole and Julia think of it?" We've asked ourselves the same questions early on...Can we do babies again(we're not getting any younger)? Can we, a family with white skin, raise a child with black skin in our community? What will Cole and Julia think? And there were many many more questions.
But, no amount of questioning or fear can stand up against God's leading you to your child. If you knew your child, the child you have now, we're all the way across the world, wouldn't you do anything and everything to go get that child and bring him/her home? That's exactly how it feels when you know God has called you to adopt.
In addition, the statistics are literally staggering. I'm not a numbers girl, so I won't attempt to explain in numbers, but there are young children who live on the streets with absolutely no one. If that happened in this area, there would be people flocking to take the children in. I wonder if we don't understand what's happening to these children and many more around the world because people just don't know. When I see the news, the stimulus bill is the top story every single day. It just blows my mind. There are children dying because they have no one...nothing. And our top stories are about the stimulus bill and a woman who has 14 children and can't take care of them. Have you ever noticed that most stories in the newspaper or on the tv, stir some type of negative feeling inside of you: fear, worry, anger. What if all the good that happens in the world was published as much as the bad? How would our lives be different?
I pray that God gives us a vision for the children of the world, who have been orphaned..who have no one. I pray that we can be the hands and feet that serve them.
