C-R-A-Z-Y

I recently had the opportunity to tell someone about our adoption who hadn't heard yet. It has been awhile since I got to share the news with someone new, and it reminded me of the way we felt last year when we broke the news to friends and family. Here's what I mean.

When we tell people we are adopting, most people think we are crazy.
C-R-A-Z-Y! Only a few say it directly to our face, but we can almost always feel them staring at us and shaking their heads in disbelief as we walk away. I don't blame anyone. I've said the same thing about people who were adopting over the years. I never dreamed I'd one day be this crazy myself.

In fact, if you had asked me two years ago if we would adopt or have more children, you would have received a very definite “No!!!” (usually followed by hysterical laughter). But God changed something in my heart. It was a very gradual process for me that began in early 2005. Bobby had mentioned adoption and I had given him the, "You've Lost It" speech. But, the real truth was that God had already been working on my heart too. I just wasn't ready to admit it to him. All during early 2005, my heart was very burdened as God spoke to me. Finally, on Mother's Day 2005, I got down on my knees in my bedroom by myself and said, "Lord, if this is what you desire for our family, make it undeniably clear to me." Over the next year, he did just that. In January of 2006, we started the paperwork. Now, if our tentative travel plans hold, I will be with our new daughter in China on Mother's Day of 2007.

As Bobby and I talked over time about adoption, we asked ourselves: Where do we want to be in 5, 10, 20 years? What makes us most happy? We both agreed that being parents has made us happier than anything else in life. I recently read this:

"What is my goal for when I am on my death bed? Is it to say that I led a materially comfortable life, full of hobbies and vacations, and nice things? Or to say that I made myself happy? That I knew important people, drove nice cars, or had special letters to go after my name? Is it to say life was easy and I lived it my way?

Or do I want to be able to look back over the course of my life, knowing that some of it was HARD, I didn't always get what I wanted, but that life was GOOD and blessed?

Yeah, certainly having only 3 kids would leave us more money to spend on our family and ourselves. But then again, having zero kids would have given us the most money and freedom of all. Or never having married, even! Shoot, we'll probably die with the same meager banking accounts we seem to have always had. But my heart account is just bursting at the seams with the laughter and love of my children!"

Jesus said it like this:
"Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." ~ Matthew 6:20-21

Are we crazy? Yeah. Blessed like CRAZY.

Our kids..... A homemade tent on a Friday night with your brothers and sisters... This is where our treasure is.