DINN FAMILY: Samuel's Story

As promised, I've been wanting to share Samuel's story (or what we know of it so far). I am confident that God's story weaved into Sam's story goes far deeper than we may ever know but from our finite perspective here it is so far:

In February 2011 the guys had a retreat at church. So two moms and their kids came to spend the night at our house. I thought I was quite sly to spur one of the mom's on to starting the adoption process. She filled out an initial application, then we did the inevitable... we looked at available children's files. Well, she inquired about 2 little boys.

Oh yes, and Samuel was one of them. For us there has always been this special "drawing" toward our children. I mean really how do you know out of 145 million orphans which ones are meant to be in your family?! I confess I felt a twinge toward this little guy but after all my friend was inquiring, and we hadn't even "settled" from Joy's adoption nor did we think we'd adopt any time soon.

Confession: I later struggled with the Lord through should I just advocate for him. I really thought to myself... this kid is so stinkin' cute I could find him a family quickly... but then why didn't I want to find him a family?! There was 6 weeks of this struggling, feeling like God was saying, he's supposed to be in your family, yet knowing how hard adoption, the grafting of family members is. Plus adding one more child to care for and invest in. (I'm just being honest here... being a parent IS a BIG investment!)

So I called two people I volunteer with at AOW. One has more children than me so I could get her perspective (rather how she survives) and the other I advocate for children with at AOW. It all boiled down to was God saying yes or no. Doesn't it always boil down to that?

Then Joshua and I had a moment... a moment getting him dressed. Weird huh?! As I was getting him dressed he was telling me in that toddler, cute, I'm independent voice that he could do it himself. So I watched him put his shirt on and God spoke into my heart. I was focusing on fixing another person meals, being responsible for their school, more laundry and instead he was focusing on what a blessing this precious child would be for our family. Not just me or Clayton or I but ALL of us. Each one of our children make our family so much richer. They are each so precious and have so many God given gifts and talents. Is it an emotional, physical, and spiritual investment times 6? YES, but oh so worth it!

Can't wait to see how this cutie grafts into his forever family! This is the picture we fell in love with...