Friends Adopting

When the subject of adoption comes up, we get all fired up because it's one of our most favorite topics in the world. Last night I found out that some good friends of ours have been chosen by a birthmother to adopt her baby boy. And we are SO happy for them, ecstatic even! But the thing with adoption is this ~ it's completely out of your hands. My sweet friend reminded me that I had told her to be prepared, that this will be a journey of faith. Adoption is one of those life experiences that will likely test your faith, so much so that it may never look or feel the same again. It is full of emotion and lots of ups and downs. No two stories are alike. And people often wonder: is it worth it? Every second.

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Please join me in prayer for this special family who has recieved this amazing news. The baby is due just a few weeks before ours, at the end of October. We know how brutal the waiting can be. It's an opportune time for the enemy to plant all sorts of seeds of discouragement and doubt. But this family has Christ as their Savior and they trust Him completely. He is, after all, the creator of this precious life. When you think about it, He is the ultimate Adoption Coordinator!

Deuteronomy 31:6

Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.

1 John 4:18

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

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So these are a few pictures that illustrate what adoption looks like to our family. The crazy thing is that when you are raising biological children and adopted children, it takes a few minutes to remember which ones are "the adopted ones." We try not to even use that phrase "the adopted ones" to ever single them out. We might say, "Evan and Isabel were born in Guatemala, while Asher was born in Missouri." We'll try to evaluate if people are asking because they are truly interested in adoption (that's been my prayer all along -is that our children, our adoption stories, can be used to bring more children home to a forever family) or if they're just trying to be nosy. If they're nosy, you'll hear me say, "Drew and Adam were born in England, Grant was born in Nebraska." In our family adoption is celebrated, babies and children are celebrated. That might be obvious since we have planned to add another this year. But in all seriousness, it can be a delicate balance for a parent who has both biological and adopted children because we are responsible for treasuring EACH and EVERY one of our children, no matter how they joined our family. Our adopted children have such special stories, but so do our biological children.

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And one more little tidbit to share -to bring glory to God through this story. This family who is awaiting this little one walked with us as we finalized Isabel's adoption and admitted that they weren't sure that they quite "got it" when we had felt the nudge to go through with adoption/foster classes, which then brought home sweet Asher (no worries, they weren't the only ones who thought we were crazy, we've actually been getting that since we added our second son ;)). And then the Lord grabbed hold of them and got their attention, unexplainable things happened in their life. Things that led them to adoption, things that could only be explained as "from God." And NOW, they sit in anticipation of adding to their family. How sweet it is.