Interestingly, this is the most common first question we are asked when discussing our adoption. And, every time I think the same thought, Considering our kids are in circumstances right now where they have no electricity, no running water, no clean drinking water, typhoid, malaria, scabies, parasites, no mommy, no daddy, and multiple children in the small space the orphanage is able to provide, the last thing they need is square footage.
A more fitting question, I propose, would be, "Are our hearts big enough?"
By typical American "standards" we live in a relatively small house. Cozy might suffice.
Our kids share rooms and love bunking in together. Most nights, there are snugglers in our bed and siblings sharing pillows...not because they have to, but just because they want to.
Our kids share rooms and love bunking in together. Most nights, there are snugglers in our bed and siblings sharing pillows...not because they have to, but just because they want to.
We could have moved, and considered moving, at the outset of our adoption, but we've felt compelled to stay where we are and use our money to bring our kids home instead. Moving may come down the road, but for now, we are happy right where we are and nesting and projects to help fit our expanding family have been a really fun part of this process.
We hope and pray that perhaps we can encourage another family considering adoption, but concerned about space, that kids need families more than they need their own room. They need love. They need a place to call home. And mostly, they need Jesus.
We may not be able to give our kids 4000 square feet on 5 acres, but we can give them Jesus. We can give them love. We can give them a family, and a home, and a nurturing environment in which to live and play and thrive and dance and giggle and paint and bathe and pray and read and wrestle and bake and sing and snuggle and hug and eat and belong and be kids. We can provide unconditional loving arms, listening ears, and hugs that children deserve.
So, I ask myself, Is our house big enough? And I decide it is, but our hearts are WAY bigger.
"Better is a little with the fear of the LORD than great treasure and trouble with it.
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it."
Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a fattened ox and hatred with it."
Proverbs 15:16-17
"Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered."
Proverbs 21:13
"And [Jesus] said to them, 'If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.' And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, 'Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.'”
Mark 9:35-37
