Almost five years ago, you could have swept me up off the floor when a late night run to the grocery store for a test confirmed what we suspected...we were expecting child number four.
It wasn't in our plans. We had a fine little family. I finally had my little girl and we were finally in a place where we could breathe a little. I could run up and take a little nap without fear of what would happen to the house in my absence. Home schooling was going along okay. Things were good.
Our first blog (One More Equals Four) started as I began to record our life as our family size increased! NEVER, EVER, EVER did I ever expect to be making such a change again...and my husband has the surgery record to prove it! We were done. Our family was perfect. While our littlest was unexpected, he was welcomed and loved and has made quite a splash in our little world!
Then, a couple of summers ago, I was introduced to the book "Radical" by David Platt.
It was life changing. I began to look at our Americanized christianity and saw that the life we were living was not the life God had called us to. We looked good. We went to church every time the doors were opened, we taught Sunday School and attended Bible Study, we had Christian friends and said Christian things and even home schooled our kids. However, we weren't doing a lot outside of our church. We were comfortable. We read our Bibles and said our prayers and lived our life in the traditional, American way.
But what we have learned over the past couple of years is this...the traditional American way is not necessarily God's way. God doesn't call us to a life of comfort. He doesn't call us to an easy life or a quiet life or even a good life. He calls us to serve Him, to love His people, to live a life that looks different.
And so, we began to make small changes. We began volunteering at a ministry of our church to a low income apartment complex. We made friends with a precious, naughty, beautiful little girl being raised by her grandmother and brought her and her sister into our home when possible. My husband began to consider going into the ministry in some way...we began searching for what our life should look like.
And then, we began to sponsor a little girl in an orphanage in Uganda. A precious two year old who lost her mother to breast cancer. A sweet, smiling little girl with a father and six siblings who cannot care for her. She touched our hearts.
One day, my husband came home and suggested to our only daughter that we just adopt that precious girl. Of course, our daughter was ecstatic and happily bounded down the stairs to announce what a great idea that was. I quickly bounded back up the stairs to let my husband know that flippant remarks like that were NOT a good idea. Our daughter was desperate for a sister and her feelings would be so hurt to find out that he was just kidding. However, it was me that was shocked when he announced that he really wasn't kidding...he thought we should pray about it.
And so began the months of praying and talking and praying some more, researching to find out about the possibility of adopting and then praying and talking some more. We had many discussions about what adopting would mean to our family and our finances. We had many discussions about what our families would say and think. We talked to our other children and found that not all of them thought it was such a great idea!
Finally, this November...we decided that this is what God was calling us to do. The finances are impossible, the logistics are equally so, and yet, we know that somehow, God will provide. We know that somehow, our son's heart will be softened and he will accept this precious girl as his sister. We do not know who our little girl is, but we know that she is in an orphanage in Uganda right now waiting for her forever family. We know that there are millions more like her. Precious, innocent children that desire a home and desperately need to know the love of a savior.
As we have embarked on this journey, our eyes have been opened to the desperate need all around us. People are starving to death or dying of preventable disease. Children are suffering from illnesses that could be cured with medicine that costs just a few cents. Boys are being taken and forced into military services and girls are sold into unimaginable conditions. We cannot save them all, but we can no longer close our eyes and pretend that life in America is normal.
So, we invite you to join us on this journey. We know it will be full of ups and downs and lots of waiting. We also know that it will be a learning and growing experience that I am not willing to miss. We know that there will be bumps along the way but that there will also be rejoicing and in the end, Lord willing, we will welcome a little girl into our home and become her Mommy and Daddy, her sisters and brothers, her forever family.
