part of our crazy | saving your seat

The piles of laundry in our home could become my full time job! Seriously it’s terrible. We’ve cut back our clothing, I’ve tried every way to make things easier. But yet – I have these moments, I carry the folded laundry to be put away in their designated spots. I look at the folded piles of laundry, it looks like I’m missing a child’s pile? No, it’s all here.

And p l e a s e tell me we aren’t the only family that scrambles out the door for Church? I mean we try everything possible to be as organized as we can – but no matter how we plan or lay out the clothes the night before, there’s almost ALWAYS a child who can’t find their shoe! Every Sunday I holler to the back of the van to the older ones – “do we have everyone?” My two oldest pipe up and say “yes, we’re all here!” I look around my seat – just to double check and think to myself, it sure looks like we’re missing someone?!

Our family sits down to dinner around our crowded table – and my husband looks around the table and replies “It looks like we’re missing someone” and does a double take and explains “I guess they’re all here!” And he bows his head to thank the Lord for our dinner.

Monday rolls around and another week of schooling begins. And the tension builds because the 3rd grader doesn’t want to read the next page in his reader, or never mind that the 6th grader is being made to write just one more paragraph to complete an assignment, or that the 3 year old just spilled his cup of milk (for the 2nd time that morning.) I must bite my tongue before I scream in despair. I quickly look around and make sure the other children are in their designated school stations. As I scan the area – I can’t help but think, who’s missing?

Our home is crazy. If we had the money we would be able to provide at least 1 or 2 individuals with full time jobs just in the laundry department, the floors and the dirty dishes would probably provide at least 2 more people with a good steady income. I’m pretty positive about this, just ask my husband! 😉

And did I mention, we are slowly filling up every corner, crook and cranny of our home? And I would consider our abode a very good size! But I guess you can only place so many beds and dressers in one room right? I mean unless you remove a dresser and become very creative I suppose?! Oh LOOK! There you have it – there’s room for one more right over there!

And yet, despite the extreme tiredness that comes with a toddler that doesn’t sleep at night, while learning to deal with her monstrous nightmare of these leg contraptions called braces. We won’t even mention the many doctor appointments that have invaded our lives with more surgeries on the horizon. You’d think we’d be wiser and be happy and content with what we’ve been given. (Yes, this has been said to me, in a more “coded” way of course.)

The truth is, despite our space getting a little smaller and coming up with more creative ways to make things work, the sleepless nights, and everything else thrown in – there’s still room.

In fact – plenty of room!

After returning home from China with our little girl in April of 2015 (just 3.5 months mind you!) our heartstrings were being tugged by a 5 year old girl, with special needs on our agencies waiting child list. She needed a family to look past the scary medical stuff, a family to care for her, to love her as their own. This little girls file went from family to family. And her sweet face kept moving further up the list. We prayed desperately that this little girl’s family would find her soon. We prayed for her family daily.

T h o u g h t s crossed our minds, but we just knew it was cRazY, I mean come on – it’s crazy!!! Don’t even think such things!!! But, this little girl’s sweet face kept showing up day after day as so many people were advocating for her. We just prayed she would have a family soon.

Little did we know, we were her family! (You know, God has the funniest sense of humor!)

SO, We’ve said YES again to adoption!

We’ve claimed her as ours, and can’t wait to treasure her, to be there for her, whatever may come.

And we’re not only saying YES to another child – you see, the Lord grows you through adoption, the way only adoption can. And we’re saying YES to whatever He plans to teach us through this new adoption journey.

We’ve said YES to CRAZY FAITH!

And we’re so honored to be able to invest in yet another treasured soul. A life that is priceless, wanted, valued highly and purposely chosen. God has redeemed us in this exact same way. What a privilege to mirror this same love. (1 John 4:19)

So YES, there’s plenty of room!

Especially in our hearts!!!
And hey, what’s wrong with cozy anyway?