How do you choose?
There's a question posed to us recently. How DID we choose a children off a waiting child list, that had a page of beautiful kids on it! Interesting question, made me pause. Let's face it, every child on that list needs a family.
Honestly, it felt like, the children chose US. It's true, saying yes to one, IS saying no to another, no mistake about that. And, we did make mental lists of pros and cons. We had worked through many of the questions during our homestudy process. Gender, age range, health risks, etc. Yet, when we saw A&K, we changed our minds about several of the criteria we had originally discussed. An adoptions counselor had wisely counseled us, to make our paperwork vague. Ours reads, "2 children under the age of 7 with special needs." Pretty much covered the gamut of what we could possibly see. That gave us the freedom to pray for God's leading, just in case children came up on a waiting list before a formal referral came through.
Definately other factors came into play in choosing A&K. We received the 'approval' of our social worker. We sought the counsel of other adoptive parents who had similar situations. We prayed like crazy. We were in complete agreement as a couple, and as a family.
The biggest decision, to me, was not which children. It was the decision to add to our family through adoption period. Adoption has definately been an opportunity for me to stretch my faith. Stepping out when I could not see exactly how all the details would, or even possibly could fall together. God puts one piece of the puzzle into place at a time. Then, at times, it feels like the puzzle gets ripped completely apart, and we start moving forward again, trusting, that this IS what God has for us, and that God will give us the strength to deal with whatever situations arise.
Honestly, it felt like, the children chose US. It's true, saying yes to one, IS saying no to another, no mistake about that. And, we did make mental lists of pros and cons. We had worked through many of the questions during our homestudy process. Gender, age range, health risks, etc. Yet, when we saw A&K, we changed our minds about several of the criteria we had originally discussed. An adoptions counselor had wisely counseled us, to make our paperwork vague. Ours reads, "2 children under the age of 7 with special needs." Pretty much covered the gamut of what we could possibly see. That gave us the freedom to pray for God's leading, just in case children came up on a waiting list before a formal referral came through.
Definately other factors came into play in choosing A&K. We received the 'approval' of our social worker. We sought the counsel of other adoptive parents who had similar situations. We prayed like crazy. We were in complete agreement as a couple, and as a family.
The biggest decision, to me, was not which children. It was the decision to add to our family through adoption period. Adoption has definately been an opportunity for me to stretch my faith. Stepping out when I could not see exactly how all the details would, or even possibly could fall together. God puts one piece of the puzzle into place at a time. Then, at times, it feels like the puzzle gets ripped completely apart, and we start moving forward again, trusting, that this IS what God has for us, and that God will give us the strength to deal with whatever situations arise.
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