National Adoption Month

November is national adoption month!

This Sunday is orphan Sunday. 

This month is very dear to me. Without adoption I would not have half of my children. I would not know the joys of being a mom to boys. I wouldn't have half of my friends in my life that I met only through adoption. I wouldn't have extended family, my son's birthmom and her family. Sure, I wouldn't have 4 in diapers and I would not know the heartache of new diagnosis'. I wouldn't spend 4 days a week at doctors, specialists or hospital appointments. I would not know how uncomfortable it can be to sleep at a hospital. I wouldn't know how to change a gtube or feed a child via gtube. I wouldn't know what PT, OT, NT, ST, DI, ODD, RAD, Pan Hypo PIT, T8P stand for. I wouldn't be well versed in hospital lingo or genetics. I would have money :) 

There is a lot I would and would not have if Paul and I had taken a different route. Some days if I am honest I do think about what it would be like. Adoption is hard. Life is hard. Life with a large family is hard. Homeschooling is hard. Life with special needs is hard. 

But life is also lovely. 

I know what it is like to be handed a child to take home that didnt come from my womb. I know what it's like to be given a gift that I can never repay. I know what it is like to see a child overcome their past and push through to a future. I get to see children grow and change and get healthier simply from love and proper nutrition. I get to see first smiles, even when they don't come for 11 years. I get to hear first words even when they aren't spoken for 5 or 6 years. I get to see a child taste food for the first time even if it doesn't happen until they are 18 months old and only after a year of feeding therapy. I get to see gtubes come out, children get healed, life breathed into their dry bones. I get to see kids have a birthday party for the first time ever at 7 years old. 

Every day may seem hard and I may want to stay in bed all day because I'm just too dang tired to do one more doctors appointment. But the reward is great. I may not see it now. I may not see it this side of Heaven. But the reward is great. On days when I am up to my eyes in poop, pee, vomit and meds, the reward is great. 

Thank you God for my children. For the birth moms that chose life and then chose to give me their child. Thank you for change in directors that allowed my children to have a chance at life.thank you for all the people involved in adoption and all theropod who worked so tirelessly to bring my children home to me. Bless each and every one of them. In Jesus name Amen. 

Be blessed