The most common question people ask us…. ARE YOU CRAZY???? The answer to that question…. ABSOLUTELY!!!! We openly admit to being a little of the crazy, odd ball nature. But, we recognize that adoption is a calling. It is not something that you just wake up one morning and say I am going to go adopt a child today. It takes much prayer, then much more prayer, followed by more prayer. The entire process of adoption must be bathed in prayer daily. Especially when you consider that our calling for adoption is with teenagers. I am sure you can all remember the volatility of your teenage years. The emotions, the drama, the trying to become independent and figure out what direction to take in life as you separate yourself from your parent’s apron strings. Imagine going through that without having the benefit of all of the lessons your parents taught you over the years. Imagine having been told that you were nobody special, that you will never be worth anything. Then throw in the history of maybe having been beaten and unable to trust people because almost everybody you have trusted has hurt you. Then throw in the fears of moving to a new country, a foreign language, a culture drastically different than your own, and having to learn to live with a family lead by parents who have rules and actively participate in your life. That is what most of these teenagers that we are adopting are dealing with. In that mix are the teenagers we already have at the house. They have their own needs of affirmation and are trying to find their path to the future that God has planned for them. You probably are no longer asking if we are crazy, you have conclusively made up your mind that we are crazy. WE DEFINITELY ARE CRAZY!!!!!
But, crazy is not always a bad thing. Think about the apostles. How many times do you think people asked them if they were crazy? Think about leaving everything you know in life to follow a rebel? Jesus didn’t do everything by the book. He didn’t follow all of the cultural ways of doing things. People called him crazy. The apostles left their families and jobs to walk into the unknown with Jesus. God hasn’t called us to leave everything we know and walk off into the complete unknown. He has simply called us to take a trip to the other side of the world and bring home a child who has been called to leave everything she knows to walk into the unknown, just so she can have a family who will love her and support her as she moves into womanhood. She has dreamed of having a family her whole life, so now God has called us to be the answer to her prayers. Is it easy?? NO!! It will not be easy for her, it will not be easy for us and it will not be easy for our other children. Is it worth the effort?? What is a child's life worth? What is a child's future worth?? Is it worth the stress to put her in a position to receive eternity as her future?? ABSOLUTELY!!
I think it was last week that our pastor spoke a catch phrase that really reverberated in my heart. He said that one person’s cry for help is another person’s burning bush. My take on that, as a child cries out to be loved God calls a family to love them. Crazy as that may sound to some of you, that is often God’s way of doing things. I am happy to be crazy enough for God to use me. I pray that more people will be crazy enough to be used by God.
