How many more are ya gonna have?

I think this is a pretty common question people with more than 3 or 4 kids get asked. I know this happens to people who have lots of biological kids! I know many families like this! And I know in the world of adoption, there are a lot of families with a bunch of kids! These are my kind of families!! :) We have 7, soon to be 9, but many families I know of have a lot more kids than me! Maybe I am wrong, but most of the adoptive families I know don't just stop after 1 or 2 adoptions. It is just not in them...

Alot of people who adopt waiting children and especially children with special needs, just have that "heart for adoption", which I believe is "God's heart for adoption". He does have a special place in His heart for adoption! After all, as Christians, we have been adopted into His family!! I said this in an earlier post, but adoption is God's idea!!! That is why it is so cool!!! And I am thrilled to be part of that plan!

I am ashamed to admit that I used to be part of that group that asked people who were adopting internationally, "why don't you just adopt here in the good ol' USA?". I didn't actually ask anyone that cause I really didn't know many who had. (Except my niece who brought home a beautiful baby boy from Korea a couple years ago, and my own dad who brought my 2 sisters home from Taiwan before I was even born...) My very own family!!! Wow, thinking about that makes me feel pretty lousy about things I might have thought. I just didn't understand, and it was coming from a place of ignorance! It's not that I thought international adoption was wrong, I just thought we have so many kids in this country needing homes, why go outside our borders? I have been a foster parent for 7+ years, and I know about all the kiddos here in our country that need a family! They desperately need homes too! For sure! But God knew Mark and I needed our perspectives changed! He showed us his heart for the orphan! And through the birth of our daughter, Madalyn, he showed us His heart for the orphan with special needs. We had no idea there are so many orphans in this world! Another blog I follow said there are about 147 MILLION orphans in this world!!! That is hard to believe! And those that have special needs like Down syndrome are almost forgotten. They need loving families so desperately! It is a death sentence for a child like the 2 we are adopting, to not have a family to bring them home and love them, feed them, and get them medical care! It is so hard for all orphans!! But a child with Down syndrome will be shipped off to a mental institution by age 4 or 5 if they are not adopted. It is just not right!!!! Think about this...if all the "proclaimed" Christians in this world would bring an orphan into their family, there would be a whole lot less children needing families in this world! Unless you take the time to really research and find out about what is happening in this world, you will not even have a clue that the need is so great!

So I guess in answer to the question to "how many more".... We will continue to adopt if possible, until God says it is "enough". At this point, Mark and I both agree that as long as there are these little ones who need families, especially these little ones with Down sydrome or some other special needs, we will continue to do everything we can to help. And if that means bringing more into our family, than that is what we will do! We feel this charge of James 1:27 more than ever before and we cannot ignore it! And it is quite a ride too! Try it, you might like it!!!!