Hold on, babies, daddy is coming!

From my perspective, adoption is kinda a bizarre thing.  I am paying insane amounts of money to take on the burden of raising two children that I’ve never met.  These children will come with a unique set of emotional and physical hurdles that will intensify the process and make it extremely difficult at times.  These problems include language barriers, heath issues, failure to thrive, learning to bond, disabilities, malnutrition, and a host of other struggles as a result of being institutionalized.  I know this to be true because I had to take a forty hour class on the topic and the material seemed to be created with the sole purpose of scaring me off.  But it didn’t work.  Despite the difficulties and brokenness and financial pressure that is coming with these two little girls, I’m not scared at all.  I’m excited.  And that’s a bit bizarre.

As we’ve wrestled through the last two and a half years, I’ve asked myself the question of why I would stumble down this strange path in life.  Was it just supporting my wife?  Was I trying to obey God?  Was I captivated by a cause?  If I’m honest, I’m sure all those things have been true at times.  But not since I saw them.  The moment I looked at Abigail and Autumn, I loved them.  Somewhere in the deepest part of me, I knew they were my mine, my daughters that I would move heaven and earth to bring home as a part of our family.  That seems bizarre too.  But it’s the truth.  I sit here this morning, typing on this computer, and my heart tells me that I have two children on the other side of the world that are mine and I love them like my own.  They have never met me, I have never met them, but they are mine!

Pretty strange story, right?  But perhaps one that is not unfamiliar,  It seems to me that I am simply experiencing on a very small scale what God has felt for the entire world.  I John 4 tells us that God loved us first.  We had no idea of real love - of family, acceptance, health, comfort, trust - until He showed us what it meant.  He loved us and came such a long way to get us, paying an immeasurable price.  Unsurprisingly, adoption was God’s idea first.

So maybe I’m not weird.  Maybe I’m blessed enough to catch a glimpse of God’s heart.  Maybe my experience is simply an echo of how He has shaped eternity.  Maybe I just love being adopted in His family so much, I want to pass it on.  Doesn’t matter in the end.  Because whether it is weird or wonderful, my heart tells me I have two daughters in India and I will do whatever it takes to bring them home.  So hold on, babies, daddy is coming!!