The Joy of Adoption and Parenting…We are SO Blessed!

Adoption is on my heart right now as we just received some wonderful news that we have been waiting for…finally all of the roadblocks are cleared and we get to move forward on adding our little one to our family permanently! We can’t wait until that day comes…likely in a couple of months.

My heart is so full as I sit here and I can’t seem to narrow my thoughts so I can express myself clearly. It has been a big week and a half.

First, we have welcomed a new little one into our home as our foster baby. He is here temporarily, yet, you still love them with all your heart. He is 6 weeks old and weighs about 7 lbs. Thankfully, he is growing every day. Next, we received the news that we are able to move forward in the adoption of our littlest one…he is 18 months old and he came to us when he was 1 1/2 weeks. The joy and relief that flood my heart when I received this news is inexpressible. Let’s just say that we have been waiting for that news for quite sometime and it was completely out of our control. But, it was in the hands of the One we trust with even our very souls…so in Him we found our comfort on those days of waiting. We also celebrated with the families of the girls our daughter has gone to Bible study with for the past 4 years. This is their last year so this was a very special time. We all packed up our cars and went camping for two nights. What a blessing. Finally, we celebrated our oldest son’s 19th birthday. We are so grateful for the man he is becoming and were so blessed to spend the day with him.

So, with all of this on my heart, I will just ramble a bit today.

I love being a wife to Robin and Mom to our children. God has richly blessed me. People ask us why we are starting over (our first two children are 19 and 15 1/2) with little ones. The first thing we say is that we LOVE children and we LOVE being parents. Even at this stage in life we see that we have love in our hearts to give to little ones and are excited about helping them grow up. And, we believe that God will give us the strength and wisdom to raise them in a way that honors Him. Our hearts break as we think about children growing up without parents and a family to call their own. It brings us to tears. We want to do our part. This is not out of duty, but out of love.

Yes, we are tired at times. And, yes, occasionally we think about the vacations we won’t be taking and the freedom we won’t have as we grow older. But, we also think about the little lives that need to be loved and brought up to adulthood. We think about little people who God has created and want to love them. We want to give them hope in this life and for the life to come. We also think about the love that these little ones so freely pour out on us and our older children. Children don’t look and see “older parents”, they see “their parents”. They see the ones who love them and the ones who are sacrificing for them. They may not always say thank you, but their laughter does. Their sweetness and their trust in us does.

Our little one is at such a fun stage. We are always smiling at him and can’t take our eyes off him as we watch all that he is learning to do! If we hadn’t brought him into our home, we would be missing all of the times he says “hello” to each person he meets at the grocery store and all of the smiles he brings about in those around him. We would be missing the hugs and kisses, the chatter and the laughter. He is one of the happiest children I have ever known and we would have missed that. We would have missed watching him learn to shoot baskets and gently touch the new little one we brought into our home. People say that he is blessed to be in our home. I say that we are the blessed ones. I am so thankful to the Lord for His kindness to us!

It is so often said that when God has gifted you in the area where you serve that serving is a joy. I completely agree. This is not to say that we aren’t tired or sometimes impatient…it is not to say that we walk around with permanent smiles on our faces either. But, it is true that there is a deep contentment in our hearts as we raise children. There is an overflowing joy as we spend time with them and instruct them. And, there is a lot of all out laughter as we observe their fun and adventurous spirit. There is also a humble dependence on the Lord because we know it is not on our own that we do this monumental task. We can trust Him when we fall short. We can trust Him when we don’t know what to do in a particular situation. It is He who we place our trust and hope in.

My brother asked us today if we have a number that we want to foster adopt…our answer…one at a time. 🙂 We don’t know how many God will bring. We don’t know what our limit is…but we do know it will be clear when we reach it. 🙂

This represents just a small corner of my thoughts today, but, I am grateful to have this opportunity to write. Along with the tiredness and the need to do much laundry that has backed up this week, my heart is overflowing with thanksgiving. I am thankful for the life that God has given me and I am thankful for those He has given me to live it with.

Blessings!