Happy National Adoption Day!

Katie (3), Julia (2)

On November 22, my family will celebrate the six-year anniversary of the adoption of my little sisters Katelyn and Julia. The girls were two and three years old when they were adopted and they remember the day quite well, so their anniversary is celebrated much like a birthday in our family. I am so grateful that God brought my sisters into our family! I can not imagine our lives without them.

I remember when my dad first called a "family conference" to discuss the possibly of starting the adoption process. Together the five of us (my parents,my two younger brothers and I) weighed the "pros and cons" of adoption. The pros were easy - we'd get a cute new sibling and give that child a forever family. The drawbacks were less time, less money, less space, more work, more patience, more sharing... that list just seemed to go on and on.

After we spent a while laying out these challenges, my dad very gently asked us one simple question. A question that still comes to my mind when making a decision that requires me to sacrifice something for another. He simply asked, "Can anyone think of an unselfish reason not to do this?" We could not.

Then seven and a half years ago, my mom got a call from our caseworker for an emergency placement of two baby girls (6 and 19 months). They were to be dropped off at our house within a few hours, but would only need a place to stay for two weeks. One and a half years later, our whole family (and a number of our extended family) went to the courthouse and made the "temporary two-week placement" officially-official-forever.

I am so glad that my parents followed God's command to care for the orphans in this way. Adoption -  the wonderful and the difficult - has been such a blessing in our family. Thanks to my parent's example, adoption is now something that my husband and I also plan to make part of our family story in the future. 

Julia (6), Kate (7)

Julia (7), Katie (8)

Our Forever Family

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. - James 1:27