Reflections on Our Adoption - Part 4

A friend on Facebook recently asked me some questions about our adoption. To answer them I went back and reread some of the posts on adoption that wrote a few months ago. This one struck me as I was reading over our reasons to adopt. Under #5 I wrote:

FOR US, our only real reason for NOT adopting is selfishness. If we can afford to support three kids I think we’ll probably be ok with four. The prospect of having an even crazier home, or getting up with another child in the middle of the night, or having enough energy to train and discipline another child pales in comparison with the overwhelming needs of an abandoned child who needs a loving Christian family.

All these things have happened:

1. A little crazier home life
2. Getting up in the middle of the night
3. More energy expended dealing with four children

All I can say is that even though these small challenges have been present, I feel more alive than ever. I remember sitting in the airport as we were ready to leave Alabama with Mya and having this profound sense of being fully alive. I don't really know what other way to describe it than that. I know what the soul numbing effect of sin feels like and this felt like the exact opposite.

Yes, I fully expect that in the future I will have to lay down my life for this child but in that moment as I held her I felt like I was right square in the center of where God wanted me and that He was confirming these promises:

Acts 20:35 - In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’

Matthew 10:39 - Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

John 12:25 - Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.