Why did we adopt?

This is going to be an old story to many of you who know us well but for the sake of some people who are newer to reading this blog and haven't heard it, I thought it was high time for a revisit. Actually, I don't know if I've ever shared it on this blog before...hmmmm.

This is going to be long...maybe 7 or 8 installments. I'm going to include all the pertinent info and am going way back to 2005 so it all makes sense. As you read, just watch and see the faithfulness of God who still speaks to us today as He did in the Bible.

Here it is how it all began:

Katie (my 18 year old), then 13 and I began dreaming of adopting a little boy just like her little cousin, Benjamin who came by way of adoption from Colombia. We spoke with Blaine about it and he *seemed* to think it was a good idea so I did some research but when it came time to plunk down some home study money, he decided it wasn't such a good idea. "We have a perfect family right now. Why would we take the chance and ruin it?" Just being real here. Those were his feelings at the time. So we have up on the adoption.

A couple months later, Blaine and his dad (who worked together) were on the side of a highway, checking out some of their property when a woman who was distracted by a bee in her car, swerved off the highway and struck my father in law's truck. Marv was standing at the back of the truck and was killed instantly. Blaine was on the side of the truck and was thrown into the air and landed in the ditch by the highway. As you can imagine, this was extremely traumatic to the family...the loss was enormous.

Blaine was rushed to the trauma center. He had a severely broken femur, broken neck and half of his face was broken to pieces. He spent 2 entire days in surgery repairing the femur and mending his face together with metal plates.

It took him months to recover but on Christmas Eve that year, he walked across the room, unaided by a walker or crutches. What a gift that was! He did it for his mom.

Three months later in March, we went to lunch at a friends house. Dan had experienced a similar horrific accident a few years before and was offering support to Blaine and us. I always loved and admired this family. Their oldest son and Blake were great friends. They were in the same home school co-op as we were. They had 2 biological children and had adopted 3 black American children. This had always intrigued me and seriously impressed me!

Well, that Sunday after church we went to lunch at the Clark's house. Blaine sat across the table from their 4 year old son, Isaiah. I watched that day as Blaine's heart melted for that boy.

As we got in the car to leave, he commented on Isaiah's cuteness. I agreed and off-handedly said, "We should have a little one like that." I didn't really mean it, not at all. It was just a not-thought-through comment. But he replied, "Yeah, we should."

All I could think is, "He didn't just hear what I said or he NEVER would have responded like that."

When we got home, I started doing dishes and began wondering where Blaine and Katie were. I found them in the office looking at waiting children on the computer! What??

At this point, I am NOT INTERESTED! After the past 6 month we just came through, the very last thing I needed was more stress. Do not even go there!