Imagine

I need you to imagine yourself as 10 years old again.  That would be 4th or 5th grade.  Do you remember your elementary school?  The school bus or your mom picking you up?

Now think about the home you lived in at that time.  My parents still live in mine.  Do you remember your room?  Mine was lavendar at one point with unicorns.

Did you share your room with a sibling?  Did you have dressers or desks?  I'm sure you had toys. 

Think about the kitchen and where your parents kept the food.  We had green lanolium flooring with a green refrigerator and I think pineapples on the wallpaper.  It's been updated since then!

Now I want you to imagine all of that being taken away from you.  Better yet, take yourself completely out of America and place yourself in Africa.

Imagine that either one or both of your parents have died from HIV or pneumonia or malaria and because your extended family is so poor no one can afford to take care of you, you are put in an orphanage. 

Imagine sharing a bed with 3 other children. Imagine being grateful for the same meal 3 times a day, 7 days a week because at least you have food.  And Imagine knowing that in a couple of years you're going to age out of the orpanage.

At 13, you'll be sent out to the streets to fend for yourself. If you are a girl, you'll have to prostitute to get a meal.  Your stomach will hurt because of parasites and you'll itch all over because of the lice and/or scabies.

Now, imagine your own child in that situation.

What would you do to protect them from that?

I'd do anything! Pay anything! Wouldn't you?

For the last few years, adoption has been something Roddy and I have talked off and on about.  Last year we had decided to start the adoption process but then after lots of discussion decided to go the reversal route.

In the back of my mind I still wanted to adopt whether we had more of our own or not, but just didn't actively pursue it after that. 

Well a couple of weeks ago, I quit thinking about it and called the local Baptist Children's Home which now has an extension on our church property.  We went to meet the lady and decided to see what doors God would open and close for us.

Then last week I was at a friend's house and she was telling me about her friend who had just adopted 2 sisters from Ethiopia in January.  Later that day, she sent me a link to this friend's blog. 

One of the first posts I read was about 3 children she had met in Ethiopia who were on a waiting list with her agency.  They are older children and have been there a year already.  Why?  Because of their age.  No one wants older kids.  Everyone wants cute little babies.

This is an excerpt from one post:

What an awful thing for a child to have to hope for-that they are good enough, cute enough, young enough or healthy enough to be desirable and worthy of a family. My husband and I met 3 of the children that are on the waiting list-two of which have been waiting since at least September when we first saw our girls. I've seen the children who still wait standing eagerly beside the visiting adoptive families, hoping to hear their name called to come and get a package from home. I've witnessed first hand their disappointment when their name is passed by. How does that feel??? To know you have not been placed. After a while, it would be hard to keep hoping. Do they conclude that they are undesirable? Do they start to believe that they are unlovable?

So I read a couple of Jessica's posts and that night made Roddy read them. I said, "What do you think?"

In my mind I had always pictured a sibling group of 3 younger than Iris (5) because in all our talks, we had said we wouldn't get anyone older than her. 

His response was, "I think we should adopt them."

Yes!! I was hoping he would say that.

So I emailed Jessica to see if we could get together to ask her some questions.  This was Wednesday of last week.  Saturday night their whole beautiful family came over for dinner and answered all our questions. 

That night I emailed the agent and told him that we were interested in adopting K, M & MM.  K is a 10 year old boy, his sister M is 7.  And the other girl, MM, is 9 or 10 and has no siblings.  The agent told me someone is considering the single girl but I told him to let me know if the family changes their mind.

Anyway.  Long story, not so short, we are filling out lots and lots of paperwork right now in hopes of bringing home our children in the next 6-9 months.

The kids are thrilled.  They pray for them everyday at meals and bedtime and Bible time.  They pray that God will let us bring them home soon and that He will give us the money to adopt them. 

We've never considered overseas adoption because of the cost but because we feel this is His will for us, we know that God will provide!  Money is nothing to Him.  And how could the cost ever be considered too high to keep our children from the suffering they are otherwise destined to endure?