Kenny said to me the other day, "If someone would have asked me twenty years ago how many children we would have, I would have said '2.5' ". We often think about how our lives would be different if we didn't have this child or didn't have that child - how much love (and sometimes heartache) we would have missed out on if we had only ____ children. And now look at us - we have five beautiful children living with us and another one on the way from Russia.
And so what if Julianna is not our biological child...does that make her less than perfect in God's eyes? Does that mean that God has not planned for her to be our child? We are aware that some people are skeptical of our adopting a child, we will pray for them that they can be enlightened by the process.
And so what if Julianna is our sixth child... Why should we be concerned what others think of our family size? We are comfortable with the number of children that we have been asked to guide in this lifetime. We recognize that some people think we are crazy for adding another member to our family. We will pray for them, that they may experience the love that we feel in our big family.
And do you think we really care about the fact that she has Down Syndrome? Actually, we do care very much about her Down Syndrome, as we already have experienced so much joy with our own Angelo that we know she will be a pleasure and delight...let alone that our faith teaches us that she is a living saint and incapable of sin! WHAT A BLESSING! We also recognize that there are those people whom we know who are uncomfortable with the fact that we are adopting a child who has "special needs." We will pray for them, that they may be open.
I remember many years ago when a work colleague adopted two children from Russia. I asked him, "Aren't you scared about what their past history is? " His response was exactly what I should have been told at the time,...it was something like...."And who among us doesn't have skeletons or medical issues in our own biological families?" Precisely! We ALL do! God did not make any of us perfectly! By trusting God, we can work through any unknown concerns that may arise with bringing an adopted child into our family.
Thank you God, for giving us the capacity to love. Having the capacity to love is what led us to adopting Julianna. For only reasons that He knows, Julianna was shown to us last summer through a picture on ReecesRainbow. Our hearts were open...open to what God may be calling us to do. Did we know at the time that we were being asked to adopt Julianna? I did not. I knew that I saw signs from God that made me believe that we had a special connection with Julianna. I felt a certain excitement about this little girl, ...a special place in my heart. I admired Julianna's mom for having the courage to keep her "not normally developing" child in a culture that couldnot support these children. I felt something inside of me want to help Julianna to have her mom again...and yet, Julianna would never have her biological mom again because of her intimely death. So, I wondered, was God showing Julianna to me because she should be my daughter now? Am I being asked to care for her....to love her...to give her the attention that she deserves? I just remained open to the spirit and what God may be asking us to do. I knew that whatever it was, God would direct us and guide us. Trust...
It is interesting now almost a year later from the first time that we saw Julianna's picture, we continue to recount how three of us (Vincent, Francesca, and me) all felt drawn to Julianna and her picture, and yet we never discussed it among ourselves. Surely, this was a sign from God. So, we remained open...and continued to ask questions. We read books, we talked to others who adopted, we questioned our sanity, and we questioned God.....but we remained open!
And now... today, our daughter's papers are in Russia, according to the FEDEX website. We trust that our dear friend, Svetlana, will take them to the notary and the judge to get us a date so that we can petition the court to bring her home where she belongs.
One last closing comment in this blog, as I do feel like this is kind of a philosophical statement sort of post...; I am closing with a quote that I hope sums up the entire blog. (Francesca - our second child of the 2.5 that Kenny imagined- would be proud of me!) You just never know what God has in store for you...
"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2Corinthians 4:18
Until another time....
Ann Marie
And so what if Julianna is not our biological child...does that make her less than perfect in God's eyes? Does that mean that God has not planned for her to be our child? We are aware that some people are skeptical of our adopting a child, we will pray for them that they can be enlightened by the process.
And so what if Julianna is our sixth child... Why should we be concerned what others think of our family size? We are comfortable with the number of children that we have been asked to guide in this lifetime. We recognize that some people think we are crazy for adding another member to our family. We will pray for them, that they may experience the love that we feel in our big family.
And do you think we really care about the fact that she has Down Syndrome? Actually, we do care very much about her Down Syndrome, as we already have experienced so much joy with our own Angelo that we know she will be a pleasure and delight...let alone that our faith teaches us that she is a living saint and incapable of sin! WHAT A BLESSING! We also recognize that there are those people whom we know who are uncomfortable with the fact that we are adopting a child who has "special needs." We will pray for them, that they may be open.
I remember many years ago when a work colleague adopted two children from Russia. I asked him, "Aren't you scared about what their past history is? " His response was exactly what I should have been told at the time,...it was something like...."And who among us doesn't have skeletons or medical issues in our own biological families?" Precisely! We ALL do! God did not make any of us perfectly! By trusting God, we can work through any unknown concerns that may arise with bringing an adopted child into our family.
Thank you God, for giving us the capacity to love. Having the capacity to love is what led us to adopting Julianna. For only reasons that He knows, Julianna was shown to us last summer through a picture on ReecesRainbow. Our hearts were open...open to what God may be calling us to do. Did we know at the time that we were being asked to adopt Julianna? I did not. I knew that I saw signs from God that made me believe that we had a special connection with Julianna. I felt a certain excitement about this little girl, ...a special place in my heart. I admired Julianna's mom for having the courage to keep her "not normally developing" child in a culture that couldnot support these children. I felt something inside of me want to help Julianna to have her mom again...and yet, Julianna would never have her biological mom again because of her intimely death. So, I wondered, was God showing Julianna to me because she should be my daughter now? Am I being asked to care for her....to love her...to give her the attention that she deserves? I just remained open to the spirit and what God may be asking us to do. I knew that whatever it was, God would direct us and guide us. Trust...
It is interesting now almost a year later from the first time that we saw Julianna's picture, we continue to recount how three of us (Vincent, Francesca, and me) all felt drawn to Julianna and her picture, and yet we never discussed it among ourselves. Surely, this was a sign from God. So, we remained open...and continued to ask questions. We read books, we talked to others who adopted, we questioned our sanity, and we questioned God.....but we remained open!
And now... today, our daughter's papers are in Russia, according to the FEDEX website. We trust that our dear friend, Svetlana, will take them to the notary and the judge to get us a date so that we can petition the court to bring her home where she belongs.
One last closing comment in this blog, as I do feel like this is kind of a philosophical statement sort of post...; I am closing with a quote that I hope sums up the entire blog. (Francesca - our second child of the 2.5 that Kenny imagined- would be proud of me!) You just never know what God has in store for you...
"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2Corinthians 4:18
Until another time....
Ann Marie