News! News!

I don't watch the news.  I don't check CNN.com or FoxNews.com on a regular basis.  I don't often read the newspaper or listen to the radio.  If anything major happens in the world, I depend on my husband to break it to me gently and with the most positive spin possible.  

Instead, I live in a bubble.  And, I like my bubble, thank you very much.  It's comfortable in here.  There is a sweet, welcoming house.  There is a good-looking, kind, loving husband.  And, there are 3 of the cutest, craziest kids you'll ever meet.  We love Jesus and laughing, learning and playing.  Our bubble is happy and warm and cozy.  

Apparently, however, God doesn't like me living in a bubble and He's decided to open my eyes to some things that I'd rather not see.  It all started when I read the book, Kisses From Katie about an amazing girl who listened to God and followed her heart, completely giving it away to needy children in Africa.  Pop!  The first bubble burst.

Then, I read blogpost after blogpost written by a friend of mine from college.  All about adoption.  All about kids who need a home.  And love.  Pop!  Pop!

Then, on a date night in, Andrew and I decided to watch October Baby, a movie about a girl who survives being aborted and is adopted into a family.  The last line did me in.  The actress who played the lead tells her father, "thank you."  "For what?" her adoptive dad replies.  "For wanting me."  Pop!  Pop!  And, Pop!

Little by little, God started showing me kids without a home.  Kids who have no Mommy and Daddy to snuggle them in the morning, noon, and night.  No brother or sister to call their best friend.  No one to pick them up when they cry.  No warm bed and no toys.  No backyard in which they can run around and play hide-and-seek.  No one to tell them about Jesus and His love for them.

God completely burst my bubble.  He showed me children who live in a country that finds them useless.  A country that puts them in a mental institution if they are not saved by the time they are four years old.  A country that leaves them in their cribs for days and months and years on end.  Though I did not want to see, like Saul, God has opened my eyes.

And with my eyes wide open, I look down and see two hands so very capable of wrapping another child in love.  With wide eyes, I look at this wonderful home and see room for another bed.  I look at my husband, who is the most amazing father, and I see the ability to show another child the love of the heavenly Father because of the example of this earthly father.  I look at my kids and see their desire for a sister - a little pink in the midst of all the blue.  

And, I know, without a shadow of a doubt that He has called us to adopt.  He has asked us to take a little girl with Down Syndrome out of an orphanage in Bulgaria and bring her into our home.  Though I do not know her name and have never seen her face, I know that God has knit this precious child together in her mother's womb and that even now, He is knitting her together in our hearts.  

So, I invite you to join us on this journey as we begin the process of adoption.  May your eyes, too, be opened.  May your bubble burst.  May you delight in the call - whatever it may be - that He has given to you this day!

"Every day, we have a choice.  We can stay nestled in our safe comfortable places, we can let fear 

of something that is small compared to the greatness of God cripple us.  Or we can take a risk, 

do something to help someone else, make a person smile, change someone's world.  

Life to the fullest exists.  It's available.  All we have to do is decide to get up and embrace it."  

Katie Davis (Kisses from Katie)