The home front

We interrupt this adoption blog for a musings from the home front. The adoption trip will resume once I hear anything from Brett.

While Brett is picking up our fourth child, I am at home keeping things going around here which in our family mostly means getting Judah (who just had hip surgery) back to his normal self. It's a little scary. He has lost a lot of weight and his legs have atrophied greatly. He is in pain when he even attempts to stand and I'm wondering if he'll ever get back to walking. And then I think, "We're having a fourth child coming here very soon with her own list of doctors" and I panic a little.

I've been reading a book Brett left called "Love has a face" by Michele Perry. It's basically a missionary story of a woman who works with Sudanese people. There has been so much that has really spoken to me out of this book. The first is a quote by C.S. Lewis out of Mere Christianity:

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house...He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of - throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself."

There's coming to me a realization that I am wholly inadequate for all this. God is building his palace in my heart - a place He can dwell and I am learning the lesson of "My grace is sufficient for you for My power is made perfect in weakness". So lest you think I'm some sort of super-mom who can handle it all, I really can't. It's only through God's grace that I can do anything I do. And adopting another child? Why would we do that when we already have so much? Again, the book I'm reading answers that perfectly.

"I have been learning to see. God has been teaching me to see both the physically poor and the truly poor as He sees them...Seeing might compel us to become involved. And that involvement would surely entail risk. Risk might mean personal cost..."

We saw the orphans. We saw them in such a way that we were compelled to become involved. We knew we could make a huge difference for at least one child and we took the plunge. Yes, it will personally cost us, but we believe the blessing of knowing Amanda will outweigh the cost.

Beth