A few weeks ago, I posted about doing something “crazy.”  I wrote that I felt that God would be calling us soon to do something people would think is crazy, something that might seem foolish or even irresponsible to some.  Sometimes, I wrote, God calls us to do the impossible, the unbelievable, the difficult, the stretching, the seemingly irrational, according to human standards.  I think Todd and I have lived a little of that for most of our marriage.  We kept having kids when almost everyone around us was encouraging us to do the “responsible” thing and stop.  We moved out to the country to a raw piece of land with nothing on it, and slowly built our dream, working to be debt-free, and actually achieving that goal through living a bit differently than most Americans choose to live.  We didn’t buy new furniture.  I have to wait until we have the actual money to do something like put in the tile I want in the addition to our house, instead of just charging it or adding it to the mortgage (since we have no mortgage).  I have had a lot of people tell me they couldn’t have the patience that I have with things like these.  Well, I confess that sometimes I wish we just did things the American way.  I want my tile.  I want my finished, beautiful house.  I don’t want to wait.  Really, I don’t.  But the truth is, when you have a conviction about something, you grit your teeth and carry on, even when you really might not feel like it at any given moment.  I remember when all the kids were little, sometimes looking around at my growing family and thinking how I would rather be at the beach.  But I chose to smile and carry on, because I believed then and I still believe now that this is the life to which God has called me.  It isn’t always easy, and it certainly isn’t always perfect, but it’s HIS will for me, and in that I find JOY and peace and the strength to carry on every single day, even when I’m tired and would rather be alone on a deserted beach for a few hours.

So the new “crazy” is here.  Todd and I have plenty of children, yes. We have 10; we know.  That seems to be “enough” (or “more than enough”) to everyone around us.  We have talked about adoption over the years, even with the number of children we had continuing to grow.  We felt that someday, adoption might be something we would want to do.  This isn’t because we felt we would need more children.  No, it is because we know that there are children out there who need us!  A few years ago, our oldest daughter presented a speech for competition about the plight of special needs children in “institutions” in Eastern Europe.  We couldn’t listen to her give that speech and show those pictures without God nudging our hearts.  Could it be that He might call us to take in one of the least of these someday?  But the babies kept coming, and it never seemed like the right time.  I felt in my heart that someday the time would come, and if and when it did, we would know it was time.

A few weeks ago, a friend posted on Facebook the link to a page about a little boy from China who was here in the States with a host program for five weeks, looking for his forever home.  I saw that he had not found a home and would be returning to China in just a couple of days after the last post.  Looking at the photos of that sweet boy, my heart broke for him, and I began to cry.  I shared the page with Todd, and he responded that he would take him if the government allowed.  So, I called the young woman whose family was hosting the little boy, and we spoke on the phone for a while. The next day, they were passing by Austin to head to the airport in Houston to send the boy back to China with the other children from the host program.  We decided we wanted to meet this little boy and then pray about what to do.  We weren’t sure what would happen. The host family drove out of their way to bring Xiao to our home for dinner that Friday night so we could meet him.  He stole our hearts, including every one of the children in our family.  Yes, it seemed crazy, but we felt maybe that kind of crazy was what the LORD was asking of us now.  This may not make sense to some people.  But it makes sense to us, as we follow and listen to God and hear His voice in our lives.  The next day, I sent in an application to the adoption agency.  We would just see if we would even be approved as a preliminary step.  A few days later, we received an email saying we were approved to apply to adopt from China.  But this still wasn’t a sure thing.  We weren’t really ready to tell people yet, as we still had to go through a more formal application to request to adopt Xiao specifically.

It took us about a week to wrap our heads around just how expensive this was all going to be.  It took us about that long to also accept that it was going to be a difficult thing God was calling us to do. We thought about it, and we prayed about it.  God spoke to us and said this is the time, and this is the little boy who belongs in our family.  Todd said that he felt like he couldn’t imagine having to someday stand before the throne of God and explain how when this precious boy needed a family, he was unwilling.  So, about two weeks ago, we signed an agreement with Great Wall China Adoption and wrote a Letter of Intent to apply to lock Xiao in to our application, meaning that he would be officially matched to us, and we would be pursuing him for adoption.  Yesterday, just a little over a week later, we received the pre-approval.  Now begins the journey of gathering paperwork, getting the home study done, waiting for the final approval, and then traveling to China to get our little boy.

Xiao has some special needs.  He has something called Cornelia DeLange Syndrome, which can cause severe mental retardation.  However, Xiao does not seem to be severely retarded, although he has some delays.  He may have hearing impairment, which had led to his speech delays.  He may never speak normally, although he may be able to speak well someday when given the proper medical care, possible hearing aids, speech therapy, etc.  We will find out more when we get him here and are able to take him to the right medical professionals.

Will this be easy?  Uh, probably not.  Will this challenge us?  Most certainly it will.  Does this mean we should not adopt Xiao?  Absolutely not.  Even believers were never promised an easy life.  God calls us to walk the hard road.  Being obedient to His calling won’t always mean a walk in the park.  More often than not, it means we will be challenged and need to rely more on HIS strength.  Are we being irresponsible?  I don’t think so.  Yes, we have other children who need us.  They are all so excited to love this boy and be his family.  There is so much love to go around.

Maybe all of this still sounds crazy to you.  I don’t really care.  God has called us, and we will follow HIM.  My other children will not be neglected.  They will see what it means to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  I don’t want to live my life in the comfort zone.  Believe me, I gave up my comfort zone years ago when I gave up control of my family to Him!  Yes, it’s absolutely crazy to think  we can raise 10 children well, let alone add a special needs child to the mix.  But my God is big enough.  I have 10 thriving, happy, amazing children.  It’s not really possible for us to take the credit for that.  I give GOD alone the glory!  Our oldest graduated from high school just a few months ago, homeschooled all the way through.  I’m not sure I really believed we would be able to do it, a few years ago.  Yet, there she is, away at university.  She even graduated with one full year of college credit completed, so she will be able to graduate with her degree in nursing in three years!  “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus!”  (Phil 4:19) HE did it!  Our daughter is a credit to the Lord, not to Todd and me.  We raised her only by HIS strength.  “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.” (Phil 4:13)

We have embarked on this journey.  We are excited and nervous at the same time.  We do not know exactly what the future will be like with our new son.  I only look to my God and Father in heaven who is calling us to do this.  I trust HIM!  I obey HIM!  HE will be our strength.  Of course, we appreciate your prayers, and we hope you will follow along on our journey.  Pray for us, that we will prepare ourselves as best we can in order to love and care for Xiao as he needs.  Pray that our other children will thrive as well.  Pray that as we live this out, our children will see what it means to step out in faith, and they will be blessed to go and do the same throughout their own lives.  We want to say “yes” to God.  I want our children to be able to say “yes” to God, too.

Feel free to share this blog with anyone who may be interested in following our story.  We covet your prayers.  We can’t wait to see this journey unfold.   We are excited to see GOD’S strength in our weakness.

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong.   2 Corinthians 12:9-10