Adoption and Being a Slacker

I am a big fan of adoption. We aren't in the position to adopt again, but I really enjoy following other people's adoption journeys. It has struck me lately, that I am pretty much of a slacker compared to these families. We have three bio kids, did foster for about 5 years, and have two adopted kids. Pretty much small potatoes compared to these families. One family whose blog I follow has 19 adopted children in addition to 5 grown bio kids. You might think that is too many children, but they really seem to be doing a fabulous job providing a family for some very hard to place children. Many of the families adopt two, three, four special needs kids at a time. I thought adopting just one at a time was sufficiently challenging.

Another thing I've noticed is that most of these families home school their children. Now I have to say that I am certified to teach both special education and English as a second language, so no excuses there. I really am qualified to teach at least my adopted children (both were older, special needs international adoptions). So, the other day at dinner I mentioned that perhaps I should have home schooled all our kids. The reaction was less than supportive. Maria looked absolutely horrified and my older three just bust out laughing. Only Jon Felipe seemed impervious to the impending doom and kept on eating. Okay, so maybe I'm not cut out for homeschooling.

To complete the slacker reality, I recently learned about Katie Davis. She is a 20-year-old who has an amazing ministry in Uganda. Her plan was to take a year off college and teach in Uganda, she never intended to stay. God had other plans. He kept placing needs in her path and she kept faithfully responding to those needs. She is still there and she continues to teach, has 14 adopted children, runs a program that feeds over 1200 people a day, and founded a sponsorship program that sends 350 children to school. This is a truly amazing, faithful woman of God and she is only 20! This is from her blog http://kissesfromkatie.blogspot.com/ :

A few days ago an American woman who had spent about three days of her life in a third world country looked at me and said, “I would SO love to do what you do. I would do it in a heartbeat. Oh, I would take 14 kids in a second!” It is a good thing that I was having a graceful day, because I said, “Aw that’s nice.” But my not so graceful heart was angry. And the not so graceful voice in my head wanted to say to her, “Ok then, do it. I can have you 14 orphaned, abandoned, uncared for children tomorrow. So here is what you have to do: Quit school. Quit your job. Sell your stuff. Disobey and disappoint your parents. Break your little brother’s heart. Lose all but about a handful of friends because the rest of them think you have gone off the deep end. Break up with the love of your life. Move to a country where you know one person and none of the language. And when you are finished, I will be here waiting with your 14 children!” I wanted to ask her what was stopping her, knowing that the answer would be her comfort. I wanted to look at her and tell her that my life was full and joyful and WONDERFUL, but I also wanted to tell her to COUNT THE COST. Because my life IS full and joyful and wonderful, but it is NOT easy. My life is NOT glamorous. I do not expect it to be. I do not think that anything about carrying a cross was easy or glamorous either.

You can check out her ministry here:
http://amazima.org/
Go to the history tab to read Katie's story.

You can also read about her here:
http://147millionorphans.com/blogs