#wewouldhavemissedthis







November is Adoption Awareness month. As I think back over the past eight years, my mind is overwhelmed with memories and my heart full of thankfulness. I have met some of the most amazing families on this journey. Families who have given their entire lives and resources for caring for orphans. Over and over and over again. In our culture, you are not supposed to say that you "saved" a child. But there are so many cases where that really is the truth. Children who would be dead if their adoptive families had not brought them home in time. Children who would have never had access to medical care or an education or resources to begin healing from all their trauma.

I have been in this "world" long enough to know that adoption is not all smiling happy families like you see in the agency catalog.  And not every story has a happy ending. And for those families this month can be challenging. Our own family story is not one without some difficult seasons. Babies are created to go from the womb to the breast of their birth mother. They are designed to be loved and cared for by a father and a mother from whose bodies their own was created. Unfortunately this is not every child's story.  Yes I said unfortunately because I have witnessed first hand the effects from these broken relationships. Adoption is hard.

Adoption can also be incredibly beautiful at the same time. I will forever be humbled that I was chosen to mother my two precious daughters. I will forever be thankful that I chose to say yes.

There is a hashtag on Instagram this month to post pictures about what you would have missed if you had not adopted. We don't go there often. To the what ifs. Anytime we start down that trail it is too painful to continue. But this hashtag definitely gets you thinking. What would have happened to our girls if we had not adopted them? What would our family be like? What would I be like? I don't like any of the answers that I come up with.




So here is my challenge to you. What are you missing out on right now? Not everyone is called to adopt a child but I believe at least one person reading this is. Don't wait. There will never be a perfect time to start.


  #wewouldhavemissedthis















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