November is National Adoption Awareness Month. This year, I want to take the time to share some information over the course of the month...some stats, some calls to action, and some glimpses into our lives and what adoption looks like from the inside.
One way we have described our family over the years is as a picture of God's redemption in human lives. As people, we often like for things to be nice. Our tendency is to want things polished and put together and, often, perfect. But life isn't really like that, is it? It's messy and chaotic at times. It's filled with hurt and brokenness and connection and revitalization. And when we embrace that as beauty, it allows us the freedom to live well within the life we have.
See, in our minds, we are inclined to see adopted families and say, "Wow--they were meant to be together." But for those of us who live this, we know that it isn't that simple. Don't get me wrong--I never begrudge this statement from friends or strangers.
We are just very aware that the pain and loss our kids endured to get to our home and hearts was not written as a perfect plan. It was the breakdown of a plan and it led to brokenness, messiness, and pain. But in the midst of that, God provided a way for things to be made right again. And we were offered the chance to give life to our kids in a way other than creating them. In the middle of a life where the people responsible for Plan A did not hold up their responsibilities, my kids were not subject to living their entire life in light of that breakdown.
In our home, we have conversations and experiences that biological parents rarely (or sometimes never) have. One of those is the regular prayer of thankfulness from our kids that often sounds something like this: "Thank you so much that you gave us parents when we didn't have any and that we have a wonderful family" or "Thank you that our mom and dad picked us and we get to have parents."
Adoption is Plan B. And that doesn't mean it's less than or a sloppy second. Plan B is a beautiful life and family that was not put together the way we are biologically designed to create children, but rather through a process that makes things right again. Our family is not one that is stamped with the idea of being perfect...but we are a living picture of what is possible on the other side of deep heart and loss. And I wouldn't trade this story for anything.
No comments:
Post a Comment