Adoption Week

This week is Adoption Awareness Week on KSBJ (our local Christian radio station). Coincidence? 3 different people have come up to me in the past month, sharing a story of someone they know who has gone through the adoption process through the state with great success ~ without even knowing that we had been considering adoption for a while now. One of the gals sharing didn't even know of my infertility issues. In the midst of a busy life and plenty of things going on, I have been given the opportunity to connect with a mother who brought her 2 children home a few months ago to be a great source of encouragement, over a 2 hour phone conversation. I have not met her in person but feel as if I met someone who has walked in the same shoes as me - an instant connection. There "just happens" to be an adoption fair tomorrow that all of the agencies in the area are sponsoring.

Coincidence? No way! God? Absolutely! It's truly the only answer. I have always known that adoption was an option, even if we were able to carry our own biological children. As many of you know, I worked with an orphan relief organization for 2 years and grew to love those children as my own. So I knew that it could happen.

Not until recently, have I been able to relinquish to the Lord that ultimate feeling that the only way that I could truly feel like a mother was to get pregnant, carry my baby to term and deliver him or her into the arms of my husband standing by. Please do not misunderstand what I am sharing here. It hasn't been easy for me to let go of all that I have imagined my life to be since as far back as I can remember....first comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby (and in MY plan, babies) in a baby carriage. I know that I was made to be a mom. I know that those desires were placed on my heart by my loving Abba Father. I am not saying that I feel that the Lord has completely closed my womb forever...maybe He has, maybe He hasn't. I do not know. But what I do know is that my womb is closed right now and that the Holy Spirit has been speaking to us intently and slowly steering us in this direction. I do know that God the Father is ultimately our Father and that we are all adopted into His family. I do know that children are born of God and brought into our lives in His timing and in His way.

My whole heart has truly changed on my understanding of what it means to be a mother. I read this poem this morning, and it really sums up what I've been trying to say....

Neither flesh of my flesh
Nor bone of my bone
But still, miraculously, my own
Never forget for a single minute
You didn't grow under my heart
But in it!

Michael & I are going to go to the adoption fair tomorrow. We don't really know what to expect but I'm blessed to have him with me on this journey, so that we can learn together. I guess we'll find out when we get there.

This is all new to us and while we are excited about the new journey, there is still plenty of unknowns out there. We'll keep you posted as things progress.