OUR PLANS MULTIPLIED

In the beginning, JD adamantly only wanted two children. I thought that four would be perfect. Once we caught God's vision of putting orphans into families, our plan was multiplied by God. We are currently blessed with 12 children; five biological, six adopted and one more waiting in Ethiopia. Our first adoption was from the U.S., the next three were from Liberia, West Africa, and our last two were from Ethiopia. We are supporting our 12th child in Ethiopia after her adoption could not pass court.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Swim Finals

We concluded the summer 2011 swim season today with finals. It was a long and hot summer, but I'm glad we did it. JD and Gabriel did the early morning shift, then I came with lunch, and shortly thereafter, JD took the youngest three home.

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James on the stand -


Elijah with his buddy, Kole. Kole wasn't real excited about getting his picture taken, but Elijah kept asking me to take his picture with his friend.


Here's Ben going over his next race with his coach.

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I ran into an old friend today that is also an adoptive Mom; she has about half biological and half adopted children like I do. She told me that they recently applied to adopt a sibling group of four. While the common reaction is "better you than me," my first reaction was jealousy. I really know it's not reasonable to add four more young children to our brood, but I love the idea of it! I was later analyzing my feelings and it all comes down to the idea that at the end of my life, I don't want to look back and wish I did more. I want to know that I pushed myself as hard as I could to really make a difference. I know there are a ton of ways to make a difference, but adoption seems to be the one that makes me jump up and yell, "me, me." I was yelling "me, me" on the inside as she was talking. It's nice to talk to people that understand as she went on to tell me that the state didn't plan on placing the children with them because of the number of kids they currently have in the home and how disappointed she was.

4 comments:

  1. Cool! A great summer sport, at least for those in the water. How'd they do?

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  2. I can totally relate to your last paragraph. Yesterday, when I woman learned that we had adopted she said, "Oh, that was really nice of you." I didn't know how to respond. But yes, I want to know I did what I was called to do and I want to hear, "Well-done, good and faithful one."

    Even as I'm going in for OB checks, I'm bringing one girl each time so they have updated physicals. You know, just in case. :)

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  3. :) I can relate to that last paragraph. It looks like your summer is going well. I was just thinking of you!

    Blessings...

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  4. I have struggled with feelings of jealousy for the last 2 years. We are in a seeming unending adoption. We can't take any more until this 1 child is home. I'm not patient either. I can see a few things God is doing with this time, but it makes it no easier for me because I want to add more kids.

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