I was at the playground the other day and I was introduced to another mother. Of course we had to go through the usual "This is Kristin, she has five kids." It was then followed by "and this is the little boy she babysits." The mother stood there and nodded and rolled her eyes and said "ugh, as if five isn't enough?!" Needless to say, we moved on to the swings!
Seriously though, what would she have thought if I blurted out "We are also adopting from Haiti in case you were wondering."
So isn't five enough? Well sometimes I think so...like when I am folding laundry or washing dishes! Really though, this is not about increasing our family size. We have always felt strongely about adoption and foster care. Not everyone is called to adopt, but we feel strongely that God has directed every step of our journey.
When I think it has been 17 years since we walked through the halls of a Russian orphanage and all that has brought us to this point, I could not be more convinced that this is exactly where we should be.
Scared? At times! I think of all that could go wrong, how it will affect the kids, what if its too crazy here? I could barely make it to the store to get milk today!
Certain? Absolutely. As soon as they agreed to accept families with up to five kids, we didn't even hesitate. We signed the papers the next day and have never looked back.
We are still waiting for a referral. I know little girls are the most "requested" so I knew there would be a bit of a wait. I was hoping it would be sooner rather than later. There is also a lot that needs to be done on the Haitian side to get the paperwork for the kids ready so they can be proposed to a family.
It is a exciting to know that God has just the right child for our family. Just today we emailed Dixie at the orphanage and told her we would be willing to take one of the three Downs Syndrome babies.
This isn't something we had considered earlier. Lately I have been feeling like we should look into some of the harder to place children. The ones that won't just be scooped up by a family. Because our kids are all so close in age it was harder to look into older children so we started thinking about some of the medically fragile children. True, we have five kids that already take a lot of time but at the same time, the child would already have a built in support system (thank you ALYSSA!!)
So we will see if anything comes of it. At this point we said we are willing and if God thinks we can handle it than it will all work out.
