Again?!

This post could really be titled more random thoughts but in light of adding our 6th child to our family "Again?!" is a comment/ statement/ question we have received quite a bit recently. Now to me 6 kids doesn't seem too many. I know someone with almost 11, someone with 8, sweet mom and daughter going to China with us have 7, and quite a few friends that have more than 4.

Which leads me to the conclusion of why people are shocked when we say we are adopting again. I think it's because they can't see themselves with 6 kids, with kids with special or medical needs, and/or can't see themselves adopting at all. You see we all react based on what we know and what we think we could handle ourselves. Me too! My friend that has 8 kids has birthed them all. I can't see myself being pregnant 8 times.

We all like God to keep our lives manageable, (in our own eyes) neat and tidy. Unfortunately none of us are real dependant on Him if we feel like we can do it all by ourselves. So allow God to stretch you. Do something today you feel like He wants you to, without talking yourself out of it. Your faith in Him will grow.

I'm not saying Clayton and I have gone out looking for chaos or hard. The key is merely doing what God has for YOU, not someone else, but you. Then enjoying the journey no matter what comes up, enjoying the lessons learned along the way.

So let's all assume God doesn't lead us to the same things and be grateful all our families don't look the same. As for ours, Clayton and I talk all the time about how blessed we are. Mostly because we don't lack entertainment or a good laugh at our house. Someone is always doing something entertaining or crazy to keep us on our toes and keep us laughing, sometimes we have tears of joy or we are crying we are laughing so hard and sometimes tears of "this is just plain hard" (like Joshie's CT scan coming up on Wed.) Please pray! Either way see God tells us we can be joyful in trials and hardship because everything is meant to bring us closer to Him.

We finished our home study visits yesterday. So thankful for a social worker like ours. She has 6 grown children that are fairly close in age like ours. She talked about how close they are now. What they did and didn't get to do as a family growing up. They didn't get invited to eat or play (everyone) at other's homes much.

Yi was telling us last night how comfortable she and her friends are here. They all like being here. Everything is laid back, it has to be, we'd drive ourselves crazy if it wasn't. I guess God knew that we wouldn't mind having people in and out of our house so it wouldn't matter that we were a little intimidating for others to have over. ;)