At O'Hare Airport

"I can't believe its finally happening!!!"

We've been hearing this a lot lately.  And we agree! In January 2009, Tom and I decided that we knew 3 things: 1) We wanted to grow our family 2) There were many living children who needed families and 3) We are all brothers and sisters of each other, and we have a responsibility to care for each other.  The smallest thing we could do was be a family to one child.

We attended Adoption 101 on Valentine's Day 2009.  Then, none of our friends had kids..  We thought we would be the first! Imagine that. Then there was Poland, and meeting sweet Kacper, and losing Kacper to a loving Polish couple, and starting over again in China. And I know many people are angry about Poland, angry for our hurt and our loss. But its funny, somehow, the whole big mess was about LOVE. One woman who would break the rules to give a child she loved what she thought was the BEST family.  Another family who would defy her to get the son they dreamed of and loved. And somehow, we were stuck in the middle, just wanting to love that same boy forever. When it was all over, I guess people thought it might break us of our plan.  But I'll never forget the day Tom looked at me and said, "This whole thing just makes me want to adopt more than ever before."  We had already only glimpsed at how simple it was to fall in love with a child who was ours through Christ and the miracle of adoption, and it felt awesome.

Every so often, someone will say to us, "it's a really great thing you guys are doing, adopting." I kind of follow it with an "Um, well, we wanted to build our family, and every child deserves a family..." but really, it is very awkward to me, because no one plans to adopt for completely altruistic reasons.  I don't think anyone would go through all of this without knowing that, at the end of the day, no matter what, you would be getting back a child's love, which would trump all else.

I read this yesterday from the blog, "Tiny Green Elephants" and it just sums up so completely what we dream of in our house:

 "I know it may be scary when you first think about it [adopting], but God is serious about adoption, and he's serious about the kids he loves, and if you don't believe me, read it over and over again in his book.  "Feed my sheep," "Love the least of these,"  "Love others as yourself," is what he pretty much says is the point of it all.  Then, as it turns out, it ends up being the biggest blessing of your life, cause guess what, he really loves you too, so much, and he'll help you.  And when he says he came to bring you abundant life, he meant it, but not in the ways you might think at first.  But in rich hearts, full arms, sweet days filled with love, joy, purpose and every other thing that people seek after constantly, literally in your own little home.

Our deepest gladness.   "The place God calls us to is the place where your deepest gladness and the world's deepest hunger meet." -Frederick Beuchner

http://www.tinygreenelephants.com/

Boarding for Beijing!