The Hard Road

One of my favorite things to do is to listen to my 10 year old daughter speak from her heart. Once she gets going she can talk for hours. I love being trapped in the car alone with her. These rare occasions are priceless! 

A few days ago, on one of these rare occasions, the subject turned towards questions about what life was like with just two kids. She can’t remember anything before we adopted. She thought for a moment and began to talk about how life would probably be a lot easier with just two kids. She also started to open up about how she wished Katy would play with her more and how she wished Brody would be nicer to her. Then she beamed and told about how happy she was that she got a younger sister but that she argues with her all the time.

As I listened to her, I have to be honest, I’ve thought of the same things before. What would life be like with only two kids? Then as she finished, I was able to honestly share my heart with her.  

Yes, it is true that life would be a whole lot less complicated and easier if we had never adopted. Yes, she would probably have many more things to herself. Yes, she would have a lot more quiet time. For me, I’d only have two kids to teach (just imagine!) Yes, I’d probably have more time to clean and do things I like to do and yes, we’d definitely have more money to go around (for sure!)

But, the price of all of these pleasures would be too grave for me to even imagine. The price would mean that three orphans on the other side of the world would not have a family. They would have been left to spend their entire childhood in orphanages and two of them would remain in facilities for the entirety of their adulthood because of their disabilities. 

These three children have been given to us to love and embrace regardless if they ever return that love or treat us well. What do we gain from adding them to our family? The answer to this question is never-ending because every day we live as the family of these precious children God shows us more and more ways He is enriching us because of it. I could go on and on about what God has been teaching us all these years…selflessness (this one is HUGE!), perseverance, patientness, empathy, humbleness, brokenness, the ability to work out disagreements, and the list goes on and on. We are often not great students of these lessons however God doesn’t give up on us and He gives us more and more opportunities to do better.

If we had said, “no” to God’s call to adopt, we would have missed all of this!

Tonight, at the dinner table, I shared this with all our our kids and I went around the table sharing with each child why they are so dearly loved by us.

I don’t want an easy life if it means that I have to sacrifice God’s best for me!! 

I’d rather live in the chaos of my crazy life knowing that I said, “yes” when it would have been so much easier to say, “no” to God’s call. 

If there is something that God is calling you to do that isn’t easy, just remember that there is tremendously more peace in the life he is calling you to then in the seemingly easy life of saying, “no”.