why now?

Have you wondered the same thing about us adopting? Honestly, I have asked it of myself. With a big move on the horizon, life could get messy in the near future. Then pile on bringing a new little one into the picture who cannot understand a lick of English and may be completely frightened of the "white woman" who insists she is now her mother. Things could get down right ridiculous at our house.

So, why now?

I mentioned earlier that K and I have discussed adoption since our first year of marriage. I remember clearly the first mention of it. I drove home from work one day and heard a radio show about the blessings of adoption and knew instantly we would someday. When I mentioned it to K over dinner, the boiled-down response was, "Let's see if we can have our own children first, then we can talk about it." My response was immediately, "Okay, we can try first and then we can adopt. I don't care what order, I just know we are supposed to do it." We didn't talk much about it because I knew K's reaction and that I would bring it up the moment I was pregnant. By then we'd know we could have our own and then it would be okay, by his words, to adopt.

We were given Peanut as a gift from the Lord about four years after we were married. Of course we'd discussed adoption as it came up along the way, usually by way of "convenient" adoption stories I relayed to K. Then about 22 months later Buddy came along. Pregnancy was great with both of them, but deliveries were both pretty scary. That is when we decided we would pursue adoption for our next child, whenever the time seemed right.

K was away for work this summer and during one particular phone call, he asked me, "So, how soon do you want to start the adoption?" Stopped me in my tracks. Did I hear him correctly? My heart was so thrilled at the urgency I heard in his voice and that he was fully ready to begin. Yet, we sort of decided we'd wait until after our next move to begin the process, but I started researching some options and asking lots of questions of friends who've adopted.

Last fall I started Crazy Love by Francis Chan. It is a life-changing book that includes story after story of people who received the love of Christ and their lives took amazing turns. People around them didn't always understand why on earth they would "give up" profession or money or fame or whatever meant so much to them in order to serve Jesus. Honestly, anyone who truly understands all Jesus has done for humanity has no other response to the Gospel but to give their life to the sharing of it with a lost and hurting world! The book kept convicting me over and over that adoption may be sooner than we neatly planned as we mapped out our life. Uh oh. Things may get a little messy.

November 8, 2009. A day that pushed us over the edge. I'm still trying to figure out if Pastor Jeff was reading our email because he asked our church what crazy (I don't think he used that word but that's what I heard!) thing we might do because we've been saved by Jesus. *As a side note, no one is saved by works. Quite the contrary. Christ did all that needs done to save me when He died on the cross. Anything I do for Him is merely a response of gratitude for what He already did for me.* Jeff brought up two families in our church who did seemingly outlandish things by adopting. One family now has nine children, six of which are by adoption. Another couple was nearing retirement with an empty nest and adopted three older children from Russia. I leaned over to K in church and told him, "I think it's time to mail our application." He agreed.

The next day we mailed it and began this blog.