Repeat Offenders

The above term, repeat offenders, was stolen off another blog. The other blog is one that I read when I can...A Place Called Simplicity. An amazing family in my opinion. The have 11 children, I think, 8 of whom have been adopted. Wow. Repeat Offenders.

I never in my life thought that I would ever be considered a 'repeat offender'. However, I guess we are.

Repeat offenders.

Not a bad thing in this case. We haven't been arrested. We haven't been doing anything illegal.

In this case our repeat offense is that we have adopted. Not once, but three times.

And we love it!!

Truthfully? Seven and a half years ago adoption wasn't an option in our minds. We were like the majority of other couples. Get married, wait a little while, have children. Sounds simple in theory.

However, it wasn't that simple for us. We got married, I used birth control pills which made me very sick for several months, and we decided that having children wouldn't be as bad as being sick all the time. A year later, I started having tests done.

The tests were non-conclusive. We had a choice to make. Either we could continue on with no children or we could pursue the medical route with no way of knowing if it would actually work or not or we could adopt. If we chose to not have children, we couldn't imagine how boring our lives would be in five years.

So. The choice really lay between adopting or medical stuff. Obviously, we opted to adopt. And really? It really wasn't even a hard choice to make. Neither of us felt comfortable pursuing the medical route. More testing meant that we would probably find out for sure what was wrong. Maybe not, but probably. Finding out for sure meant that one or the other of us would possibly blame the other for not being able to build our family in the 'normal' way. That didn't sound fun.

We did what we felt God was leading us to do. We signed the contract to adopt.

That first step was by far not the hardest step. It was new. It was exciting! After all, in just 9-12 months we would be parents!

Only God knew what all was actually zipping in our direction. Thankfully, only God knew.

Had you asked me four years ago if we would become 'repeat offenders', you likely would have heard a resounding NO. Many times it just didn't seem worth it. Many times Jason would be all depressed about the financial end of the adoption process and I would talk him out of it. Or I would be depressed about the latest batch of paperwork and he would drag me up by my nose and remind me that it was going to be worth it in the end.

It wasn't exactly a bed of roses. Not that any method of building a family is, I hear. :)

And then we met our children for the first time. Then we walked through the door of those orphanages...and I knew. We would likely become 'repeat offenders'. I didn't know when, I didn't know how, I just knew that I would never be able to rest comfortably in my warm, cozy home knowing that there are literally millions of children wishing for families.

The 'when' just kind of happened. We didn't have the finances to start the process again. It was stressful. But we knew that God was asking us to simply trust Him.

And you know what? It has worked out. :)

It hasn't been comfortable. It hasn't been ideal. But it has worked out. It has been a faith builder.

One thing we have learned while being 'repeat offenders' is that there are choices to make. If we follow what we believe God is asking us to do, we may have to give up a few things that we think are 'necessary'.

Such as a new car. Our car is little. Just a four door thing that worked great while it was just Jason & I. Then along came Addie & Will. It still worked great. Full, but workable. Then along came Jack. Hmmm. Three carseats in the backseat of a car just isn't handy. But you know what? It works. We had to buy specially made carseats for it to work, but it's been worth it.

Don't feel bad for us. It's a choice that we have made. We have chosen to spend every extra dime (plus some :) ) we have on bringing more children into our family. We have chosen to change our lifestyle a little so we can afford to bring more children into our home.

While many people are choosing to get loans to remodel, or build a new house, or purchase a new car, we are taking out loans to add one more child to our family. It's all in what you are called to do.

(Will, the first day we ever met him face to face.)

Not everyone in this world is called to adopt a child. Not everyone is called to be a missionary to a foreign country. Not everyone is called to operate a day care in their home. Not everyone is called to stand on the street corner in a big city preaching the Gospel.

And aren't we thankful that we aren't all called to do the same thing. What a boring world this would be if every last one of us was in the same place doing the same thing.

What we are all called to do is obey God's Word. We are all called to spread the Gospel, but that can be done without heading downtown. We are all called to care for the orphans, but that can be done without bringing them into your home. We are all called to be missionary's, but that can be done with your next door neighbors.

For us? We have been called to care for children in a way that we didn't see when we first married. Our life has taken a twist that we didn't expect.

(Addie in the first picture we ever saw of her....one month before we were able to meet her face to face.)

Will we continue to be 'repeat offenders'? Only God knows the faces that will be in our final family picture. While we would love to add some more precious little souls into that picture, we don't know if and when it will happen.

Will we go back to Russia if we do feel led to bring home more children? Likely. Three-fifths of our little family is Russian. It'd be safe to say that our hearts are in that country. Make that, our hearts are in that region....Primorsky Region. While we know that there are children around this globe that need homes, our hearts can't keep from straying back to the land of our childrens' births.

(Jack in one of the first pictures we received of him)

And we will never forget what it's like to walk through a door of an orphanage. The smells, the sounds (or lack thereof....I am still amazed that in a building with 75+ children under the age of three, there is not one single sound to be heard. Our three children make more noise than what we heard in any of the three baby homes we've been in.), the caregivers, the poverty, the lack of hope, the sad little faces, the empty eyes. The need for Jesus.

If it were possible, we would return back for another child every two years or so. Will it be possible? I don't know.

Addie's already praying that next time we go back to Russia, we'll bring home a little girl. :)