Community

When we knew God was calling us to adopt, no one ever told us about the amazing community we would become a part of. It has been truly incredible to see the different friendships and the strong bonds that have come through being a part of the adoptive community. It continually blesses us. These are people who get it - they understand the financial and emotional sacrifice and the even greater reward. Many have been in orphanages and understand the need and the millions of children left behind. Others have been through the emotional journey of domestic adoption - building a relationship with the birth family, saying goodbye to birth moms who choose no contact, having a birth mom change her mind, and all the emotions that accompany that process.

Everyone's story is different, no family's journey is the same but we have all been touched by adoption. Most of us have made choices - like driving older cars, taking smaller vacations, scrimping, saving, mortgaging our houses, taking out loans, fundraising and many other things to make growing our family through the miracle of adoption possible. We are passionate about it - how could we not be? We love our kids, they are miracles, they are our own - finding them wasn't always easy but having them forever makes the pain worth it.

I'm thankful for this community and for these friends. And several of my dear friends and their families are coming into town tomorrow and I'm SO excited! There is still so much to do. I'm making lists, making food, cleaning, organizing, and praying for good weather! For today, my youngest sister is coming to help and to play with the kids - I'm so happy to have her! I've got a little bit of grocery shopping to do, some copies to make, and quite a bit of cleaning to accomplish. This is the first day in several that I am actually feeling better - here's hoping I'm on the road to full recovery. That would be awesome.