Not Just Our THING

I will get to my title in a sec, but first I want to share that I did something a little out of my “norm”. I asked my Pastor if I could write something for our weekly newsletter and devotions, called the Scroll, for church. My something turned into four different articles over the next month in recognition of National Adoption month.

You might ask yourself how this is out of my “norm” when I sometimes write very personal things and feelings on my blog. The difference for me is I know some that read my blog, but there are a lot of people who read that I have no clue. So in my pea brain that means not that much exposure. For church, I know exactly who my audience is and that makes me feel a tad vulnerable, but at the same time I am excited for the things the Lord puts on my heart and I feel it is part of my mission to bring to light something that I feel is pushed to the side a lot, and that is the Orphan.

So my title today is something I or my husband has heard before and recently. For instance, that it is my hubby and I’s thing to adopt, and we could see why you are so passionate about it. Or, when we brought up the desire to adopt again and for me to be home with our growing broad and how we can do it, the comment was made to my hubby, "Well that’s your choice". Who in retrospect wished he would have said at the time, “No it is not our choice, but our responsibility.”

To go a step further the comments we have heard that aren't even made about us, but when I excitedly tell others about families I know adopting, and I receive the comment back, “What are they adopting for; they already have kids of their own.”

OH. MY. HEART.

I pray all the time to show grace and mercy in these situations and not let my passion for the orphan and the widow turn into anger over other’s ignorance, but rather I can use it as a teaching material to help bring to light what God clearly commands us to do. I will also say again that I am not saying God commands us all to adopt, but he clearly commands us to do something. So pray to him for what your something is.

Before I get too deep I will share with you my first article for church. I am just laying groundwork and briefly describing our adoption experiences, and my first one is about our daughter, EJ.

National Adoption Month, Week 1

My intent is not to have our story focus on tales of infertility or detail the years of trying to figure how adoption will play out for us, and what is God’s plan for us and children. I will say that we had no idea if we could ever conceive a child of our own, and we didn’t want to know because adoption has been on our hearts for a long time and we knew regardless if we conceived children God was calling us to adopt; we just didn’t know when, where, or how.

My husband K and I had been married for 10 years before our sweet daughter, our first born, came home with us forever from Guatemala.

In November of 2006 we began the journey to EJ. The mounds of paperwork gathering and approval began, and somewhere in this beginning stage of the adoption process we were told we had a girl and the next day we laid eyes on a precious picture of her at just 2 weeks old. It was at this beginning stage that we found out the child we had already conceived in our hearts finally had a face and a name, and the unconditional love we had for her was so intense. We couldn't’t wait to get this beautiful brown-eyed gift from God home!

Month after month we received updated pictures and medical reports and the process of waiting became so hard and scary, yet joyful and exciting at the same time. Guatemala was talking of law changes that were scary to parents waiting and these changes were going to be implemented at the end of the year 2007. We prayed God would lead us through before that change and he did big time! Time after time his plan came to light, and even when I thought we were going to get held up or even stopped in our process he showed me that it was all in his hands, a constant my husband kept repeating to me.

Jeremiah 29:11 states, For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. This verse became very near and dear to me during this wait to bring our EJ home.

November 29th, 2007 was our Forever Family Day with EJ who was not quite 9 months old yet. What a moment, what a day, what a time where love and joy filled every single inch of our hearts and souls. EJ was everything we expected and more and in just mere seconds our family was together.

Her story and our families story does not end here though and I ask that you continue to follow as I unfold our son Mo’s story and more on the hard joyous truths of adoption.

I ask that you focus on this verse until then.

Psalm 82: 3-4
Defend the cause of the weak and the fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.