Want To Play Adoption?

I guess you would call this a guest post.  I know it’s our family’s adoption blog but Christy has put all the work into this thing so for me to try to take any credit...wouldn’t be right.  But I did ask her this week if I could post after a conversation I overheard our boys having.

Now, you have to remember our boys are TOTALLY opposite.  Winston is the warmhearted, loving, emotional, caring child who’s already grooming himself to either be a movie star or a preacher…go figure that.  Then there’s Wyatt…ball playing, ninja, army, sniper, cowboy or whatever is on TV that we have wardrobe for, as long as, it’s tough.

So you can image my surprise when I walked through the kitchen and heard Wyatt say to his big brother, “Come on Winston, let’s play adoption again!”

Huh?

Usually, I hear Wyatt get mad at Winston because Winston won’t let Wyatt tie him up like a calf or use him for target practice.  NEVER would I think I’d hear him say, “let’s play adoption again.”

Not really sure how they play or what goes into it other than I’ve seen their homemade adoption certificates, everyone gets approved in a matter of minute, and the best I can tell is the child may even get delivered to your home!  Wow, wish we could use Winston and Wyatt Adoption International!

I’ll admit we are VERY early on in our adoption but in my small world; my heart and mind has changed in so many ways…that the only way you can explain how our gritty 6 year old football, army, ninja, cowboy starts playing the pretend adoption game is that his heart has changed too.

What is it about adoption that softens your heart and opens your mind?

Maybe watching a video of another couples adoption journey and seeing the gates of the orphanage open, as they go meet their child.   Then witnessing vans carrying the adopting families not being able to get out of the van because there as so many kids standing in the drive cheering!  These precious cheering children believe that either their parents are on that van coming back for them or today is their day to be “chosen”.  Then to observe a little 2 year old lead one father by the hand from the van to where they can wait because he has seen this so many times before, yet hasn’t been adopted…. does something to your heart.

What is it about adoption that softens your heart and opens your mind?

Getting to see three kids from Uganda in their new home standing around a toilet and cheering every time it flushes like someone just nailed a last second three point to make to the Final Four!

What is it about adoption that softens your heart and opens your mind?

Getting to see a mom holding her new baby right in front of you and saying through her tears, “We didn’t have the money to do this but God spoke to our hearts and we jumped out in faith and He provided and we have our little girl! And we will go back again!”

What is it about adoption that softens your heart and opens your mind?

Knowing there are 147 millions kids just like the one’s blocking the gates and God has chosen me and blessed me with the means to reduce that by at least one. (Yes I said AT LEAST one…that’s how he been He’s been working on me.)

What is it about adoption that softens your heart and opens your mind?

Hearing a friend put it into full perspective like I’ve never heard before “Because we are here on this earth means we are all part of an equation, there is no getting out of that.  In the equation there is us on one side and fatherless children on the other.  What we have to answer is what are we going to do about it?”

That is just a taste of how the adoption process softens your heart and opens your mind!

I thought it fitting to close this post out with a few lines from the song Hosanna…

Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like you have loved me
Break my heart from what breaks yours
Everything I am for your kingdoms cause

And again this verse cuts me deep…

“…once our eyes are opened, we can't pretend we don't know what to do. God, who weighs our hearts and keeps our souls, knows that we know, and holds us responsible to act.” ~Proverbs 24:12

Waiting Patiently,

Tyson