Could I love a child who doesn't look like me?

       My parents took Henry to the mountains for the week and I only have Mary Taylor during the day. Wow, having one child is so much easier than two, I wish I had realized that at the time. I cleaned my whole house and it is still clean after 24 hours! I took down all my Christmas decorations, I have returned Christmas gifts that were the wrong size, I have eaten out three times, I have taken a shower, dried my hair, and straightened it! It would have taken me two weeks to get all that done with two crazy kids!

       Yea! Now lots of time to focus on our adoption! Generations and Lifeline Adoption Agencies are both Hague accredited. The Hague convention is an international agreement that safeguards adoptions. They aim to protect the orphans and the parents in the adoption process. The Hague Convention requires every parent to participate in a training before they adopt. Our agency is part of the NCFA, which requires a 8-10 hour online training to be better informed about intercountry adoption before proceeding. So, I decided to start this training today. During the online training, I came across this article titled, "An Unmatched Set," which is about adopting a child that doesn't look like you. God has opened my eyes to the children of Uganda and I cannot explain the love I have for that country, but in my sin, I do doubt. I have had doubts and questions about adopting and all this has entered my mind.  Through this process, I am realizing how much I still need approval from men. I often fear what people think of me and wonder if this is God's will for various reasons.  But I am confident that God will direct my steps. This is not my thing, it is Gods. He put this desire and passion in me and he will lead me. Adoption is part of God's design. Adoption is beautiful. One quote from the article is:

"When I think back to my pre-adoption fear-'Could I love a kid who doesn't look like me?'- I know the answer now. I know that you can love a child who doesn't match and that that child will be nothing short of beautiful to you. I also know that you will sometimes forget that you don't look alike."

My friend Andrea posted this video about a musician named Micheal Franti. This inspirational video was aired a week ago on CBS during a special on adoption and foster care. Very neat story!





***I am learning that getting all this paperwork filled out is not simple. One piece of paper might require you to visit three different places. Then when you get to a destination and they might want you to fill out four more pages of information for just one simple medical procedure! Tomorrow is another day of running around town trying to check things off my list. Once I finish the finger prints and the medical form, I will start on the next series of papers! :) Wow, they weren't joking when they said it was a lot of work to adopt a child! But, I have to remember this is all one step closer to meeting the child that was picked for us before the beginning of time. All this paper work is the "pregnancy" leading to having this child in our arms! So all this paper work is worth it!