Mother's Day

With Mother's Day coming tomorrow my mind has been on the joy my two sweet girls bring me and my life as a mother.  My heart also wonders, prays, yearns for the day we can grow our family through this adoption.

I went to the Mother's Day brunch at our church today and got to enjoy some fellowship with many amazing mothers - including my own personal favorite, my momma.  I am so thankful God has blessed me with my mom.  She is a huge part to my path to adoption.  She taught me what it means to be a good mom and I wouldn't be who I am today without her influence on my life.

I love how I can talk to my mom about my heart for adoption and she truly gets it.  All three of my siblings are adopted and all four of us kids have an interesting story to how we came to be a part of our family.  I can remember when I was growing up and sometimes friends would ask me questions like "So what's it like being biologically an only child?" and I felt dumb-founded by the question.  Not one moment in my life have I been an only child.  My parents had already adopted my older brother and sister in Mississippi before I was born and later went on to adopt my youngest brother from Korea.  I learned, in time, to respond with the question "What's it like not to have adopted siblings?" and it would get whoever asked the previous question thinking.

I've always known not everyone understands the call to adoption, but it has become even more clear as Ben and I have begun our own adoption adventure.  Many people have asked why we would choose to adopt - especially from a country that requires us to live there for 6+ months before we can bring our kiddos home.  Our response is: "That's where our kids are and we need to bring them home." 

God has called us to grow our family through adoption and I am privileged to be a part of this calling.  My own relationship with Him has grown tremendously through our experience so far and it has opened the door to some pretty cool ways to be a witness for Him.  It is interesting to see the reactions of people when we simply say God has called us to bring our kids home and then be able to share our faith with this conversation.

At the top of this blog, we've added the verse from John 14:18 "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."  To my own kiddos who I am not able to hug and enjoy mothering this Mother's Day: I cannot wait for the day I can come to you and be your mom.