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<\/span>I come to you humbly asking for prayer. Especially for my three oldest daughters, and for wisdom for me! All mommas know it: teenagers are hard. Three teenage girls are harder. Three teenage girls from different tribes and cultures and pasts trying to live together in one bedroom are harder still.<\/span><\/p>\n In an effort to be real, I want to tell you. Adoption is wonderful and beautiful and the greatest blessing I have ever experienced. Adoption is also HARD and painful. Adoption of older children is a beautiful picture of redemption. It is the GOSPEL in my living room. And some times, it just stinks.<\/span><\/p>\n As a parent, it stinks to not know when your daughter took her first steps or what her first word was or what she looked like in Kindergarten. It stinks not to know where she slept and whose shoulder she cried on and what the scar on her eyebrow is from. It stinks to know that for ten years of her precious life you were NOT the shoulder she cried on or the Mommy she hugged.<\/span><\/p>\n As a child, it stinks to remember your biological parents\u2019 death, not matter how much you love your new Mom. It stinks to have your mom be a different color than you because, inevitably, people are going to ask why. It stinks that your Mom wasn\u2019t there for all the times you had no dinner and all the times you were sick and all the times you needed help with your homework. It stinks when you have to make up your birthday. It skinks when you can\u2019t understand the concept of being a family forever because your first family wasn\u2019t forever.<\/span><\/p>\n And every single day, it is worth it. Because ADOPTION IS GOD\u2019S HEART.<\/span> <\/span>He sets the lonely in families.<\/span> <\/span>Adoption is the reason that I can come before God\u2019s throne and beg Him for mercy, because<\/span> He predestined me to be adopted as His child through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will\u2014 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.<\/span><\/p>\n My family, adopting these children, it is not optional. It is not my good deed for the day, it is not what I am doing to \u201chelp these poor kids out.\u201d I adopt because God commands me to<\/span> care for the orphans and the widows in their distress. <\/span>I adopt because<\/span> to whom much has been given, much will be demanded. <\/span> <\/span>I adopt because <\/span>whoever finds his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for HIS sake will find it.<\/span><\/p>\n Some days, my friends, it is not easy. Today, it is not easy. The HURT in my daughters\u2019 hearts is big and real and as their mother, I want to fix it and know that I CAN\u2019T. So I lay it at the feet of my Father and rejoice to know that<\/span><\/span> if we are children, then we are heirs \u2013 of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings \u2013 in order that we may also share in His glory. <\/span>And I call out to the Holy Spirit knowing that<\/span> He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for us.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n A sweet friend pointed me yesterday to Genesis Chapter 33. Esau and Jacob are meeting for the first time in a long time. As Jacob approaches Esau, with his many children following close behind, Esau asks, \u201c And who are these with you?\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Jacob\u2019s reply: \u201cThese are the children that the Lord saw fit to bless me with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n We get all the questions. \u201cWhy do you do it?\u201d \u201cWhy so many?\u201d \u201cHow in the world\u2026\u201d \u201cWhy these specific girls?\u201d \u201cWhy the number 14?\u201d \u201cDo you think its ok to adopt as a single Mother? Don\u2019t they need a father too?\u201d \u201cDo you think they will have issues since you are not the same race?\u201d We also get the compliments. \u201cI don\u2019t know how you do it!\u201d \u201cGood job!\u201d \u201cYou must be so responsible!\u201d \u201cYour girls must be so well behaved.\u201d We get crazy stares and huge smiles and every look in<\/span> <\/span><\/span>between.<\/span><\/p>\n Adoption is beautiful. Adoption is hard. Adoption is the Gospel of Christ and the promise of God\u2019s love and redemption lived out in our lives. So I ask for your prayers. Prayers for understanding and peace and trust and the power of God that is more than all I can ask or imagine. And to the questions and the comments and the compliments, this is my reply: \u201cThese are the children that the Lord saw fit to bless me with.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I come to you humbly asking for prayer. Especially for my three oldest daughters, and for wisdom for me! All mommas know it: teenagers are hard. Three teenage girls are harder. Three teenage girls from different tribes and cultures and pasts trying to live together in one bedroom are harder still. In an effort to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1032,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n