Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Best Kind of Changed!

It is really the strangest thing, we have not yet adopted a child from Ethiopia, but I can honestly say, just getting this far into the process of adopting a child from Ethiopia has been a huge blessing to our family!

As we drove home in the car the other day, my 4 year old daughter suddenly (we were not talking about the subject) said, "Mommy, when I grow up I'm going to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia!"

Soon after she also announced that she wanted to be a puppy dog when she grew up to which my 6 year old informed her she could not be, and World War III broke out in the back of my SUV making me wish for the partition that limo drivers have to seal off the driver compartment from the noise of the rest of the vehicle. But then I may have missed those
13 words:

"When I grow up I'm going to adopt a little girl from Ethiopia."

And those words are yet another precious illustration of what the process of adopting a child into our family has done
for our family.

I think I could talk all day for months and months about loving others - people who are not your family or even your friends but people created and loved by God just the same - to my kids and not get through to their hearts at all. But this adoption process has changed all of us in ways I never would have expected.

We are thinking more about other people, loving them, even. I believe it is one thing to feel compassion for people in need, people from other parts of the world, and it is a whole other thing to think of those people as your family.

We bought those Africa shirts in the picture above through Children's Hopechest and they are in turn providing shirts and a pair of shoes to 5 orphans in Ethiopia. When I imagine those children getting their new things, they are not just children, orphans in a far away place. No, now that orphan is potentially
my child, my daughter, getting shoes for the first time in her life to protect her little feet. And it all becomes very personal.

My 6 year old son keeps giving me little bits of his money from his bank or his allowance, "This is to help pay for the adoption, Mom," he tells me.

How many times have I prayed for God to create in my children selfless, generous, loving hearts?

I never imagined he'd do it like this, but God's ways are always better than ours, aren't they?
"As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways." Isaiah 55: 9


Find more Thankful Thursday, Thursday Thirteen & A Thousand Words Thursday.

11 comments:

  1. How exciting and the t-shirts are such cool idea.

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  2. This is so heart warming....No, really. I loved reading. The T shirts are awesome too.

    Come join me if you can...Mine is Thirteen CAT EXPRESSIONS...not photos, word expressions. Find it HERE. Have a wonderful day ahead.

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  3. SO exciting and so revealing of God's work in your family's life. Enjoy the blessing of this experience in your family's life. My four year old has informed me that he wants us to have 60 kids on our family! I think I better start reading your blog faithfully to learn more about adoption then ;) There's no way this aged Momma can have 57 more. (I am shocked and blessed by my third on the way right now.)

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  4. That is so wonderful! I am learning that children are much more compassionate and loving about the adoption process. My son is over the moon about it. It is the adults that make some of the most absurd comments. I pray that my children's compassion and love do not fade with age.
    Love the shirts!

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  5. I can't tell you how much this blessed me this morning. I LOVE it...How wonderful that you have managed to teach your kids such a wonderful thing as the importance of really loving and giving to others. Who knows what impact this might have as they mature and look for ways to give. LOVE it...Have a great day. Hugs, Debbie

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  6. Oh, how wonderful! I loved hearing about your kids, both about your sweet daughters first proclamation and the real life battle that soon followed. Ah, nothing like real life. :) I look forward to future posts about you adoption. blessings. ~

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  7. You have such a sweet family. I put Children's Hope chest in my Favs. I will go back and check it out and buy a tee shirt also for my granddaughter. What a simple and helpful thing . Thank you for sharing. God bless you and the adoption. Carol

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  8. What sweet, generous, compassionate children you are raising. Thank you for sharing this touching story.

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  9. very cool and very encouraging...what a great job you are doing with your family. Blessings as the process continues. And, by the way, I do think you should invent one of those partition things to put up and down when the whining/tantrumming starts from the back seat! I'd buy one!! I

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