Adoption Pile On

I don't typically blog more than once in a day, but I guess it's an exceptional day.

November is National Adoption Month.  The goal being to make all of us more aware of the adoption needs within our country.

I usually ignore the activist month or day for whatever cause, no matter how good a cause it is or how much it touches my life.  I'm just not a big shout if from the roof tops kind of gal.

However, there have been a number of things happening in my planet that bring it sharply into focus.

A wonderful family near and dear to us has been waiting far to long to adopt a very special sibling group.  It is a classic example of a case getting lost in the foster care system.  It is painful to watch.  It is even more painful for them to live as they struggle month after month living in the uncertainty of what happens next.  No child fully settles until there is permanency.

Another wonderful amazing family I am related to is going through a similar situation of almost to the adoption and then, in foster care land, yet another shoe drops.  They are living faith every day.

Here in our house, Little Miss is a part of our forever family through adoption.  At 5 we already walk some tricky paths of skin color and questions.  Getting grounded or sent to time out brings out the words, "I want my other mama!"  Her memories of her "other mama" are more imagined fantasy than reality, but they will always be.

It has come sharply into the foreground today.  Life is simply happening.

Little Miss has to bring a special something to class tomorrow for a glorified show and tell.  She picked  the one possession she has from her birth mom.  I felt compelled to write the teacher a note explaining some of the situation because I can only imagine how exactly Little Miss will explain this special item to her classmates.  Where it came from and what it is and why exactly is it special to her.  I'm not sure even she knows fully why it is so special to her.

And then I started thinking about Mr. Monkey.  He moves in on Friday.  He will come with the one possession he has from his birth mom.  We have been asked to take care of it for him, which of course, we will.  How could we not?  It is his one, singular connection to a past he is actually old enough to carry memories of.  His adoption is in our future.

As if all of that is not enough, I have been contacted by a fellow blogger to give an interview of sorts about adoption experiences and how they have shaped our family, our lives.  I am undecided on that as yet.

If all of this did not have my attention, the phone call this afternoon certainly did.

It was the county.  She said she knew we are moving Mr. Monkey in on Friday with adoption pending, but she had to call.  She said she knew the timing was off.  She said she knew it would be hard.  She said, "we knew you wouldn't be afraid of his issues".

Then she said, will you take another, it's heading straight to adoption, or as straight as any foster care case goes, and will you take him.  Will you take another?

So now we pray.  We hold family meetings.  We question.  We pray.  We try to collect the hints, the nudges, the signs and put them into something that makes sense.  We listen for that Voice that tells us what to do.

We have what seems like mere moments to make a decision that effects lifetimes.

I open my email and see the note, Adopt Magazine has it's new issue out.   There are so many kids, so great a need.  At Crumbs From a Full Plate my friend talks about supporting a child and giving away what we so often think of as ours, in Thinking Outside My House.  Another friend of mine blogged today at Live From Ninevah about seeing Jesus in the people all around us, in Jesus in Dirty Jeans.

The timing and coincidence of these things all at once is not at all lost on me.

So now?  Pray and listen.  If you are so moved, please pray for us, for this boy, the workers and family members involved, for all of us to be wise in this enormous decision.