Blessings

People keep telling me how amazing we are for adopting two boys from Ethiopia. I always think, and sometimes ask them, what is so amazing? I hear how hard it must be. Hard? What is hard?

God used a friend to plant a seed in our family. God revealed to each one of us; me, Bill, Seth, and Alex, that we should add to our family. You see, when something is of God, He will make a way. It took about a day to email an adoption agency and tell the director, we wanted to adopt. We were lead to our Tamirat. I posted on a homeschool forum asking if anyone had used CCI agency. One lady answered. One lady out of the millions that read forum posts. Mary had adopted three and her cousin, two. I told her who we were looking at and it just so happened that her cousin had the siblings. That is not a coincidence! The Lord clearly lead us to Tamirat!!! So, people who ask, "How did you pick one out when there are so many to choose from?" We didn't. God did.

Fast forward. Tamirat fits into our family perfect. Perfect. It has been a very easy transition. Nothing is hard! Yes, most of you know that he won't eat American food but my sister has a son and husband who are very picky eaters. How is this different? We can't label him picky because he is "adopted".

Rewind. I started the road to paperwork. My life was at a point where I could make it a part-time job to sit at my computer everyday and work at it, piece by piece.

There were frustrations. I knew it was all in the Lord's timing. When I had everything ready to be submitted to court, we found out Obsi needed his paperwork re-done. We only wanted to make one trip to Ethiopia so we waited with Tamirat. Tamirat couldn't wait. His mother was sick, we had to move forward with him. He didn't pass the first court appointment. MOWA didn't get their letter to court in time. We passed the second. We traveled, picked him up, came home. All in the Lord's timing.

We are currently booking flights to go get Obsi. WE GET TO GO BACK AGAIN! And, we get to bring Nicky. His plan, not mine!!! I am so glad we didn't have "our" way.

Now for the amazing part that really isn't amazing. Tamirat and Obsi are being transplanted into the American culture. You can't understand what that means unless you have been to Ethiopia. It is these boys who are amazing! It is me who is embarassed and ashamed at our culture.

God has blessed our family in ways I can't comprehend. I feel so undeserving of his blessings. I am in awe of what he would do for our family. Here is a list of what my feeble mind can see in front of me (as opposed to His plan for our life):

Our family got to experience the Ethiopian culture along with the poverty.

We got to experience a worship service in which poverty doesn't matter, God is God and worthy of some radical worship.

The Ethiopians get along without cars, farm machinery, electricity, running water, bathtubs/showers, closets full of clothes, washers & dryers, refrigerators, stoves/ovens, jobs, computers, iPods, video games, Walmarts, healthcare, television, calendars, clocks, houses with many rooms including their own bedroom, ....

We got to befriend the people who take children off the streets and give them a home.

We saw a mother's love in giving up her children because she is HIV+. She wants a better life for them. I can still hear Tamirat's mother wailing during the final good bye.

The Lord blessed us incredibly with the time we spent at both orphanages we visited. Despite the children losing their families, they were happy and filled with joy. We just don't see that in America. That kind of love. They hugged us, looked us in the eye, and were genuinely happy to see us when we arrived. Precious children who are waiting for the Lord to provide a family for them.

Our family has gotten to meet other families who have adopted children from Ethiopia. Lovely families. It is amazing to watch the bond between children who don't even know each other. The bond that draws them together instantly. And to hear them speak their native tongue, Amharic, with each other. We knew absolutely no Ethiopian/American children before we brought Tamirat home. The Lord has just been dropping them in front of us. We are incredibly blessed by it!

This is getting too long...I will try to post our blessing, one by one, more often.

So, the hard part? One more boy meant the family sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast together rather than all of us separate in front of the TV. The purchase of more towels, forks, and cups. Me being "forced" to learn how to cook Ethiopian dishes that we have come to love and enjoy. Me having to tote another boy to sports practices and games. Along with that comes more friends for us and Tamirat.

There is no hard part! We are blessed in everything. When Jesus is Lord of our lives, we can't be selfish. If Bill and I were selfish and looking forward to an empty nest, we would have missed out on all the incredible blessings. We could have kept our family as is and had more "things". We could take more trips. Airline tickets aren't cheap and now we have 2 more boys. I could have less house work and have more "me" time to do as "I" please....but I would have missed all the blessings that make my life so much richer.

I thank the Lord for teaching our family this:
"We love him because he first loved us."
- 1 John 4:19

Charles Spurgeon says:
This must ever be a great and certain truth, that we love him for no other reason than because he first loved us. Our love to him is the fair offspring of his love to us.

This is THE ONLY reason we can bring these boys into our home and love them.