Metamorphosis

<sup>Many of you have watched, as we brought home our little crawling caterpillar girl and seen the bandaged chrysalis stage and then celebrated as Hannah became a beautiful butterfly and learned to walk.  


"Once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do.  God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows what we know and holds us responsible to act."</sup>  


Adoption has been a most eye opening adventure.  I am so grateful for the many ways God chips away at my selfishness.  Marriage.  Motherhood.  Adoption.  A heart heavy and burdened for the orphan.  


Our eyes are open.  We know what to do.  Our family is delighted and blessed to announce that we are in the beginning stages of another adoption.  


We have been potentially matched with a little girl with limb differences similar to Hannah's.  Our agency is waiting to receive her file from China before we can submit LOI (Letter Of Intent).  In the meantime, we're getting started on our dossier and homestudy.  


I'm very excited about adopting again!  The process takes about a year, so hopefully we'll have her home sometime next summer.  I wish I could show you pictures, but that will have to wait until further along in the process.  Trust me, she's darling.  


I'll write more later about how this all came into place, but in the meantime, here are some links to other blogs that I've enjoyed in the last few days.  These are all adoption related.


This mama challenges us to not get comfortable.

This mama went from 4 kids to TWELVE in two years, and talks about the logistics of large family living, and responds to some of the comments they get.


<sup>This mother of 7 sons explores the balance between knowing how great the need is and knowing when your plate is full.

Proverbs 24:11-12</sup> Rescue the perishing; 
   don't hesitate to step in and help.
If you say, "Hey, that's none of my business," 
   will that get you off the hook?
Someone is watching you closely, you know— 
   Someone not impressed with weak excuses.

Tonight, Paul and I were talking, and he brought up a very good point.  Sometimes people adopt to "save" a child, or for what they can do for that child.  I get that; it's part of it.  But really, what WE GET as parents is so much bigger than what we give them.  Jesus said you will always have the poor.  Why?  In part to teach us compassion and empathy and generosity.  I see God using my desire for another child in our family as a way to further refine me.  Certainly, there will be some denying of self as we pare down expenses wherever possible to pay for the adoption.  I have learned and grown throughout the experience of adopting Hannah.  I can't imagine not having her in our family, and I can't wait to see what God has for us to learn with our new daughter to be.  But mostly, I just want another child.  And that's where adoption needs to start.  Now with lofty ideals, but with the deep longing to parent.