When my husband and I started our family ten years ago, we were content. Our careers were flourishing, we had a beautiful son and life was good. We were late bloomers, so having a son after eight years of trying was an answer to prayer. How could we have ever known that God would use this mercy in our lives as a springboard to our future?
Before our son Luke was born, we had discussed adoption as a great way to start a family. God did not remove this conviction from our hearts after Luke's birth. A year and a half later, we began the process of adopting Katie. It was simple and at the same time the hardest decision we had ever made in our lives. How could making the decision to parent another woman's child from another country be so easy and terrifying all at the same time? As I type I listen to the song "She" by Elvis Costello:
...for she may be the reason I survive,
the why and wherefore I'm alive,
the one I'll care for through the rough in ready years...
How true these words ring. You see, I always thought I was a "boy" person. Then God sent us a girl. A beautiful, intelligent, talented, sweetheart of a girl. The start was still rough--the first couple of years of it. And she was a baby of all things! I felt--very selfish. Why had my world just gotten immensely harder? Why did I (with a capital "I") do this to myself? The fact is, I did not do it. God did. And thank God He did! I could not imagine my life now without our precious girl. This little girl has stretched me, pulled me out of my selfish, cocky, "hey I got this" self. Thank God for her. I only pray that our relationship continues to grow in the peace and love of Christ with each passing year.
Who would have imagined that seven years later God would put on our hearts to adopt another girl? An older girl. With disabilities. Honestly, y'all, the disabilities alone are not a struggle. Nor is the fact that she comes from a rough start. Nor is her age (11). Nor is catching her up from a Ch*nese Kinder level to a US 5th grade level. All these things together, however, are not for the faint of heart! We could not do this alone. Only God could prepare us for this whirlwind that has been her first adoption year. And we would not trade it for anything on earth. Chelsea is a determined, intelligent, funny, beautiful girl! We are a family made by God and I pray that our relationship continues to grow in the peace and love of Christ with each passing year. If not for our three children, how boring our lives would be!
Three months ago, my husband and I tried hard to find a family for a sweet girl we met from Colomb*a named Anlly. We finally realized--through much prayer and discussion--that we are that family. Our home study paperwork has been turned in and we are waiting on a visit. Our prayer is that we bring Anlly home before Christmas. Are we ready for her? YES WE ARE! God is with us and through Him all things are possible. We are content to allow ourselves to be clay in the hands of Christ, constantly being molded and mended. Anlly, we love you and we miss you more than you could ever know. Our prayer is that once we make you part of our family that our relationship with you will continue to grow in the peace and love of Christ with each passing year. :-)
