Burdens or Blessings?

When we tell people that we are adopting from Ethiopia, there are two common questions we get. One question is “Why from Ethiopia?”.
The second is “Why would you adopt when you have 2 children of your own?”.

The short answers: God led us to Ethiopia and we would love to have a BIG family.

But to fully answer these questions, I need to start right before Mark and I got married.
While we were engaged, we talked about children…maybe we would have 2 or 3. And we would most definitely wait a few years after we were married. HA! God had much different plans for us and I am pretty sure He had a good chuckle about our “plans”.

During that same time period, we also began to be challenged to see children as God sees them, not as the world does. To see them as blessings, and not as burdens.

Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. Psalm 127:3

Slowly, God began to open our hearts to His will for us. We decided to give control to God, to let Him decide how many children we would have and the timing.

Taylor was conceived after Mark and I had been married for only 1 month and Noah was conceived before Taylor was even 1. When we began to think about a third child, God started to tug our hearts towards adoption. You can read more about that story here.
We looked into domestic and international adoption. We looked into private adoption agencies and government ran agencies. We looked into EVERY country possible. We did LOTS of research and LOTS of praying.

When asked “Why Ethiopia?” it is often because people question why we would go to Ethiopia when there are children here that need homes. Trust me, if I could adopt them all, I would :), but I know that is not God’s plan for us RIGHT now. Domestic adoption may be His plan sometime in the future, but RIGHT now, we feel certain that God has led us to Ethiopia. We know that He has a child for us and we have to trust that God knows what He is doing.

And to touch on the second question, I have two young children. On a daily basis they try my patience. Everyday God has to give me grace and forgiveness. There are days when I think we can have 12 kids and there are days that I wonder how I manage with 2. Day after day I ask God to give me a heart that will view our children as blessings and not as burdens, a heart that will love our children and long for His will.

As much I do not “love” how these questions often make me feel, I choose to praise God for the opportunity to speak to others about adoption and how God has worked in our lives.