Have You Ever Wondered What Adoptive Families Need?

When God puts a passion for something He Himself Loves in a heart of the believer , He will never disappoint us...His will is to see us passionate, but with joy, even though the "road" we are called to may be filled with many trials and tribulations, unbelievably so, we are still filled with His joy!

When you would of told me even just five years ago that I would have four kids or possibly more, I would of said, "no way"! In fact we made "sure" that couldn't happen (medically speaking)...My thoughts were, "more kids, more of me" and I just wasn't willing to give "more of me" which translated to "less kids, less of me"...

Um so yea, let's just say, "God got a hold of my heart and changed it inside out!" God has indeed shown me that God uses the "least" of us to show the best of HIM! I sometimes walk down my halls asking God, "Why would you call ME??!! I am so far from deserving. Are you sure you want to give me more of your lambs!!??" I see my heart and attitude struggles so clearly when held up to the Bible's standard...My true desire everyday is to live in such a way that makes the gospel attractive, I fail daily, but continue to be picked up by my God and motivated by the cross to keep running this race on earth...


I say a lot of that because the reality of pursuing this second adoption has come with much realization on my hubby and my own part that we are an "open book"...People are going to be watching how we respond and how we feel every step of the process...And what they will get is the naked truth. In fact, here are some of those bare truths to name a few!

*We are scared!

*Please don't assume that we "have it all together"

*Remind us to trust in the LORD.

*We feel inadequate more of the time than not

*We wonder why God wants us to parent more children when our attitudes with the children we already have are far from sanctified!

*We are in need of saturated prayer and encouragement from the body.

*We need breaks!

*We need advice/wisdom!

*We want the body to hold us accountable to God's standards.

There's days I don't wanna get outta bed, but I know I have to because God calls me to be my children's mom. There's days I don't wanna face my kids because all I feel is gonna come out is "ugly"...I love my children, I love being their mommy, and I love the passion for orphans that God has put in my heart! But I am a fallen woman! I need Jesus to change my heart every minute of every day because what comes so natural is "self" satisfaction!! I used to think, "Okay God, after I have perfected this "area" of my life then you will really be able to use me!!" ha ha...When actually he wants to use the my weaknesses in mothering to reveal my continual need for His Son and to refine me and change me!..

We love the body of believers and our church family. You are all such a encouragement...We are going to be in need continual reminders that our strength is in Christ, that his grace will go with us, and we need the, "How are you gonna do it?" and "How do you do it?" to disappear from the believer's mouth, because we already feel that way on our own, and believe it or not, it's very discouraging to hear that, because as believer's we should already know that it's God's grace which strengthens and puts the winds in our sails. As much as I wouldn't dare walk up to a fellow sister/brother who is dying from cancer and say, "How are you gonna do it??" or to a missionary, "How do you do it??" It just doesn't make sense...Sooo if you are wondering how to walk with us down this journey, I hope I have expressed that clearly, honestly, openly and lovingly...

I have never, ever missed my life, ever. You know, the one I didn't want to give up because it required "more of me"...I love my life, because it's tucked away in Christ :). Now How did Christ go and do that to me!?? A mystery I'll never quite grasp!

I pasted a beautiful post a father wrote after God changed his heart toward the orphan and ended up adopting...

"As difficult and chaotic as our lives have become sometimes, I would not trade it for anything in the world. I just finished reading a book entitled "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years" by Donald Miller. Its about stories. The stories you and I are a part of in our lives. We all want to write a good story with our lives but as Miller puts it "no one wants to do what it takes to write a great story. Joy costs pain." I am learning the truth in those words. Any good story has pain in it. Joy definitely comes through pain. Funny how we try to create a life void of pain and void of trials, yet what we seek is Joy."

And this here is what you would call "our adoption theme song" I guess...So beautifully explains how it feels to walk into the "unknown", but the "known" to God :)