Jesus really loves the children!

A few years ago, I read "Heaven is for Real" and there is one statement that stands out in my mind.  Three year old Colton gains his life and health after a tragic illness that sent him to death and begins to vocalize his experience in Heaven--he repeatedly states to his parents, "Jesus really loves the children." As I spend time reading God's Word, I see that statement resonate in the scriptures while it deepens in my heart.  I have always loved children--God created me to be a teacher and a mother and I have no doubts of that.  I remember conversations that John and I would have early on in our relationship where we would dream of one day adopting children.  We always felt like adoption would be something we would do but came to a consensus that it would happen once we had finished having biological children, God willing.  So, if you know me, you know that once I gave birth to Gabe, I obsessively started researching adoption.  We felt like Gabe had made our biological family complete and I was ready to look ahead to the children we would welcome into our home.  My research led us to conversations about adopting from other nations, adopting from Jamaica after our mission trips there, and adopting locally. However, in all of those conversations, John would politely dismiss my impatient "we-have-to-do-it-right-now" suggestions. I have always trusted John to be the discerning body in this family--he has a patience that I dream of attaining some day.  So, either because I was tired of being dismissed OR because I trusted John's patience and discernment (let's go with the latter), I dropped the idea of adoption and continued to focus on raising our three littles, teaching, and growing in faith.

Last spring, however, adoption came back up.  I don't remember exactly if it was John or I that brought it up, but what I DO remember is that John said that it was the right time.  We had been watching a couple families in our circle foster and adopt and we realized that God had revealed to us the direction we would take in this adoption journey.  We contacted Randolph County Department of Social Services, signed up for MAPP classes, and made arrangements to be trained every Thursday for three hours for 10 weeks. We asked for close friends to pray for us, John and I agreed that we would regroup after each training to discern if God was continuing to lead us forward, and we prayed a prayer of obedience to follow Him knowing that He would watch over our family.  Every week, when listening to details of the various levels and types of abuse, the manners in which children act out in response to the abuse and neglect, the expectations of our time and our hearts, what it means to conduct shared parenting with the birth parents, and the expectations of our parenting, I had two thoughts that would run through my mind: 1) How did anyone ever let me take my children home from the hospital without this training AND 2) Jesus really loves the children.  We began the training process with ten families and found ourselves one of three families at the end of the training.

We had been in the process of waiting for our foster/adoptive family profile and application to be reviewed and approved until last week when we found out we were approved by the State Board.  On Friday, we received a call.  The social worker informed us that we would definitely be receiving a sibling set that would be placed with us this week. It is difficult to express the emotions that we feel as parents.  We are joyful that God is entrusting us to love these children for however long they are placed with us, but we are also saddened that the family involved will be experiencing such a difficult loss--this week may be one of the worst weeks of their lives.

We have trusted God to rule over our lives but have specifically asked for Him to take control of this journey--we don't want to try to control any of it.  Our children and these children are ultimately His children.  We continue to walk by faith and the provision He has already blessed us with, the network of support of our family and friends, and the peace that passes all understanding is overwhelming to us.

Matthew 22: 37-39 states "And he (Jesus) said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  God sacrificed His most precious and only Son so that redemption could be ours. We expect that our lives will be turned upside down in this transition and in finding a new normal--but we question how could we not be willing to sacrifice a little to love our neighbor through loving their children as an expression of attempting to return the love God has for us.  We are not "good people," we are sinners who seek God each and every day with the ultimate desire of our heart to serve Him so that others may see Him and choose the redemption that has already been paid for them.  Our prayer is that any and all who do not know Christ in this process will find Him, that seeds will be planted in the hearts of these babies as long as we have them and are able to "train them up as they should go," that our children will witness what it means to see faith in action, and that God will sanctify us making us more pleasing to Him.  We are honored to be obedient and even more honored that this obedience includes loving little children.  We hope you will walk this journey with us in prayer.

(Some photos in our preparation...)

The room is ready!

Practicing my skills with some new hair styles!