September

Wow ... what a September! We knew it would be a busy one, and it proved us right. That's the reason as well that our last post was way back in August!

September started with a long weekend to one of our favorite places ... the Georgia Coast. We also celebrated the launch of Longleaf Church. It ended with a family trip to Disney and the triplets' introduction to Mickey. In between, we faced the unexpected surprise of water damage to the house (while we were in Atlanta meeting with our adoption social worker!) That led to new carpet in half of our home and mandatory cleaning out of closets. One weekend we had really looked forward to, though, was our trip to Nashville, Tennessee for the Empowered to Connect conference sponsored by Show Hope. Brian and I headed for a long weekend with expectations of gaining lots of wisdom and once again finding clarity and direction on our adoption journey.

We were not disappointed with all of the knowledge we gained, and we feel better equipped as we become adoptive parents. To our surprise, we even learned some great principles that we can apply now as we parent our girls. We'll plan to blog more about this conference later to share what we learned.

Part of me headed to this conference to find an answer to the question of what more we need to be doing with orphan care. We have been connected to some amazing people throughout this journey who are involved in caring for orphans through various ministries, and I was pretty much convinced God would use this conference to show us what specifically we can do to help. I have met a new friend who has been called to work with deaf orphans in Liberia. I have been following a family who adopted from Ethiopia who now supports children living on the streets there through a feeding program. Her sister is starting a maternity home for young mothers in Kenya. Another mom I follow has done some incredible things to aid widows and orphans in her hometown as well as in Ethiopia. There are many selfless people finding their place in global orphan care, and I have wondered more and more lately what God may call us to do.

We both listened expectantly at the conference. Two of our presenters were a couple who have adopted both domestically and internationally who volunteer at their church and run an unbelievable adoption and orphan care ministry. They are absolutely passionate about helping other families and about the church's role in supporting those who choose to adopt. When the guy mentioned that he is a lawyer, my immediate thought was that God was using this opportunity to show me that this was something we could do, too! I listened intently as they shared their story. And then it hit me! I figured out on the spot exactly what it is God is calling us to do ...

Ready for my grand revelation ... we are being called to do exactly what we are doing right now! In the midst of our passion building for orphans, I somehow assumed, I think, that we should jump out there and DO something about it. Well, it finally occurred to me at this conference that we are, in fact, doing something big. While our adoption journey will affect the lives of our two boys and not the millions of other orphans out there, we have to be intentional about doing this right. We will have to spend a lot of time and energy and focus on connecting with our boys. Their transition into our home and our girls' transition to being their big sisters will require a lot from me and Brian as parents. That is a lot, and that is enough right now.

I literally felt a sense of relief as we left Nashville. We continue to have the burden for orphans that got us started on this journey, but I felt almost like we received permission to simply focus on our own journey for awhile. Our mission at this time is our family. We are being called to parent these 7 children. The thing is, we are being called to parent them well, and we are content with that being our number one priority. While we both know that something else lies ahead with what we will do as a family to care for orphans, we now know that the time for anything else will come later. We have 2 new little ones to focus on for now, and that is plenty.

So, I'm gonna sit here for a minute and reread that sentence about our 7 children ... still letting that sink in a bit!