They Are Just My Babies...

As the normal morning activities of a homeschooling family with five children swirl around me I sit down to write.

I hear one son singing as he does his morning jobs. "I've been tickled by a feather, I've been tickled by a wasp, I've been tickled by a yellow bumble bee..."  It makes my heart smile to hear him. 

Another son wonders about the time, worried that he is not going to complete his jobs by the time I told him to try to finish. 

The girls are splashing in the tub.  They don't normally bathe in the morning, but this morning they are so excited about getting their hair washed with their new watermelon scented shampoo that we make an exception.

So what is on my mind that I sit at my computer at this time in the morning?  What kept me awake as I thought and prayed about it last night?

I have started this post several times.  I have always stopped and deleted it before it was finished.  I don't want to be misunderstood.  There is a lot of talk in the adoption world about the mission or calling of adoption.  And I understand that. I truly feel that God called us to adopt our girls. The needs of orphans around the world are very real and the statistics are staggering.  As Christians these needs should move us to compassion and mercy! God even commands us to take special care of orphans and widows.

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." James1:27 

But... I want my girls to know that it is so much more than that!  We need them in our family.  I need them as much as they need me.  They are not a mission project.  They are my babies. 

When God moves your heart with compassion and calls you to adopt one of His needy little ones He gives you everything you need to complete the calling.  He gives you the love and the longing.  He replaces your natural desires with His desire for you!  He creates a hole in your family that only that child can fill.  

That is the beauty of adoption.  Mutual need, of a family who needs a child and a child who needs a family, being brought together.  It is a match made in heaven.  Quite literally.