Clueless

As I written about before, when it comes to kids, my husband and I are clueless.  With a
capital C.  As in, haven't changed a diaper.  Ever.

Now, when it comes to teenagers, we're good.  We have both been in student ministry for over seven years.  So we can handle the angst, the drama, the texting, the overall goofiness of adolescents.  Especially since they are other people's kids.  :)

So combine our cluelessness of the general population under age 7, with our journey to internationally adopt and you have two people desperately in need of some help.  And a lot of it.

It is amazing to already be connected to women in our city who have or who are in the process of adopting internationally.  They are in various stages of adoption, from having their children home with them for years, to a family who is in China RIGHT NOW, (about to meet their two new sons in a few hours!!!), to friends who are in the same part of the paperwork process that we are.   God has already provided such a network for us.

On Friday, I had the privilege of meeting and having lunch with two amazing women, at two very different stages of the adoption journey.

Joy Portis is mom of eight, (yes, I said eight) children.  She and her husband Cole have biological and adopted children, including children with special needs AND a foster baby (who I immediately fell in love with upon meeting.) You can read their blog here.

Layla Palmer is a VERY gifted, artistic woman who has a blog called The Lettered Cottage.  Layla and her husband Kevin are about to start their adoption journey to Ethiopia.  Layla is extremely gifted in design and photography. (Seriously, check out their blog. It's ridiculously amazing.)  They, like Brian and I, have no children and will be adopting first.

I walked away so encouraged from our time together. I loved hearing Layla's heart- her honest questions about this process. She asked about things that I needed to hear.  Joy is such a down to earth woman, with no pretenses, who exudes a peace that comes from knowing what God is calling her to do.  She has eight children.  Eight small people to take care of. That's a lot. But I can tell you, from the first minute of  talking with her, that those children are LOVED.  Each of her children are special and wanted and cared for.   This is not a family that is concerned about keeping up with appearances or with the neighbors in our crazy town of Montgomery.  This is a family that is living out the Gospel and living out what scripture continually tells us to do.  They are taking care of the orphaned, the brokenhearted, and those in need.  I was so encouraged and challenged by their example.

So Brian and I have decided that we should adopt eight children from the Congo.  Go big or go home, right?   Ok....just kidding everybody.  Breathe.  We are going to stick with adding one or two little Words.  Yes, I did say two.....  we are going to be open to a sibling group.  Not a definite... just "open" to the idea.  And we have to be "open" to the idea now on our paperwork in order for it to ever be reality, if the situation happens to arise. For example,  if we are given a referral for a baby and that baby has an older sibling, we need to have already been approved for the possibility of siblings in order to adopt both of them.  

So....as I was saying at the beginning of this post we are clueless.  And probably crazy.  But God has called us to this adventure, so we are all in.   He has already been SO faithful with his provision and with putting people in our lives to help us along the way.

I can't wait to see how He continues to write this story.