You Can Call Us Crazy

Oh where to begin…well, this last year has been a whirlwind.  We traveled to Africa 2 times and brought home our son Fetinet, we went from a family of 3 to 4 and all of our lives were turned upside down and we have all been blessed beyond belief.  From our first announcement of our adoption on Mother’s Day 2010 (http://expecting-from-ethiopia.blogspot.com/2010/05/exciting-news.html), 3 years has past and we have met some pretty amazing people along the way.  Most of which are connected to our adoption story in one way or another.  People we had never known who donated to our adoption or be-friended us are now some of our closest friends and some of them we call family.  

We also have a host of new friends that we will forever know because our children all lived together in Ethiopia and have a very special bond.  As parents to these children we have bonded and have been a huge support system for each other.  You can literally almost link each and every one of us by who called who crying when they first brought their child home and realized the reality of what our new life was, and it wasn’t the happiest of tears either  J  And now we can all look back and smile and laugh about what those first days, weeks, months were like and give wisdom to the newer moms entering the crazy world of adoption (specifically older child Ethiopian adoption). 

Our outlook on life and what our priorities are has been forever changed and through that we have surrendered some things we used to have as priority.  We have seen the need that exists and the devastation that lies in a country far from us and have realized how blessed we are here in America.  Even in the times of being paycheck to paycheck and thinking our lives are stressed beyond belief, we will forever have images imprinted in our head of what it is to be truly hungry, lonely, without shoes or proper clothes and how much just a little bit can change a life.  What we spend on a drive thru meal is what someone else makes in a day or even 1 week’s, worth of work!

Something else we have realized is that, 1.) there are just too many boys in our family right now and 2.) that we have an extra bedroom in our house that only gets used when we have guests in from out of town.  A bedroom that could be filled with another set of little feet or maybe a couple little sets of feet.  And although in our culture to have 3-4 kids in 2 rooms may be seen as not ideal, it is pretty darn ideal in most others.  Sooo, what we are saying is we have another announcement, exactly 3 years later with the same news….WE ARE ADOPTING (again)!!!!  Before you hear it from our boys we figured we needed to get the news out.  They are very excited and ask us quite often about their “sister” (and have requested that she be a “little” sister so they can both be big brothers), when will she be here, how old will she be, when will we go back to Ethiopia, etc.  Unfortunately we can’t answer any of these questions just yet and anticipate that it will be another 2 years before we can.   We can tell you that we did have to check some boxes on our application and they were:   girl, ages 0-5 yrs old, single child, twins or siblings.

You may think we’re crazy and yes we probably are.  Didn’t we just finish the long waits, the emotions, the saving/fundraising/applying for grants, etc?  Wasn’t that stressful enough?  Aren’t we still adjusting to a life with a child only home for 10 mths?  Didn’t we complete our act of doing something good and adopting one child?  Yes that latter sounds pretty unreal to think but I’ve heard it before and I know many do think that way, seriously they do!  But yes, adoption is not for the weak at heart or mind, it is a crazy rollercoaster and full of unknowns and so I guess you can only call us crazy for the fact that we are ready to do it again. 

So with this I have a big favor to ask of anyone reading this.  Will you pray for us?  Pray that we are listening and following what God is leading us to do.  Pray that we have peace in the details of it all and can remember that His plan is not our plan and that His plan is always better.