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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Our decision

I personally know many of you who follow our blog. Some of you are family, others are close friends. Then there are those of you whom I have never met but have followed your family's often praying for you, trying to encourage you and celebrating with you. I am so blessed to be a part of a community, whether I have seen you in person or just in a picture, where we all genuinely care about each other. This group of people help encourage me, inspire me, challenge me and teach me to be a better friend, wife, daughter and mom. I often wish I could gather you all in one place and thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for everything. I wish I could give you even a fraction of what you have given to me but I know that there is nothing tangible to be given. Nothing here on earth is worthy enough or carries enough wealth. But God has so graciously put you all in my life and I am beyond thankful.

I was recently given a book called Adopted For life written by Russell Moore. Reading this book has made me think about adoption but not in the tangible form, but rather the adoption of me by Christ. I have been a Christian for a long time, and although my family did not raise me that way, they have always been supportive of it. As I was reading chapter 2 last night it got me thinking about my adoption (not in the worldly terms) and the adoption of my sweet boys. So I thought I would share with you Josh and I's call to adoption any why we feel, as Christians, this is something we all must be invested in.

Let me start off by saying adoption was NEVER our second choice. In today's society adoption is usually the result of infertility issues. After trying for some time, with no success, most couples seek adoption. So often people just assume Josh and I can not get pregnant and that we sought out adoption as a second choice. This is simply wrong. Josh and I have always wanted adoption to be our first choice. Let me be perfectly clear that I do not judge others who have adopted due to infertility, adoption is a beautiful thing regardless of how one comes to that decision, it was just simply our first choice.

You all know that our boys both have Down syndrome. Adopting children with special needs was never our desire. God had put me in a new job working with adults with disabilities. I fell in love and began to pray for each person I worked with daily. This was my first one on one experience with disabled people and man were my eyes opened. I saw enormous potential, loving hearts, forgiving minds and a group of people the world expected nothing of. This broke my heart. I began to pray that God would soften my heart. Little did we know that this was the beginning of something so much bigger.


This is going to have to be finished tomorrow. I have 2 little boys who need their mommy!

4 comments:

Tara said...

Cannot wait for part 2!!!

Kristin said...

Funny, adoption was always my first choice, too. But we gave the traditional route a go first. It was horrible, but gave us our beautiful kiddo #1. We chose adoption for kiddo #2, never specifically choosing a special needs child, but so thankful that is where it led us :)
Can't wait for part two.

Lacey said...

I'm so glad I have met so many great people through this blog world! I can't wait to join this adoptive club too.

Alan Anderson said...

I love your story - can't wait to read the rest! I love that adoption was your first choice because I (like others) would have assumed you couldn't have children and so you adopted. What a neat thing to be able to tell your children!