We have all been there, I’ll bet. You have a thought and wonder, “was that me or God thinking that?”
Nope, this will not be a blog about God’s will and decision-making, but perhaps the first of many blogs about the 4 Askers becoming more.
When I was yet a glimmer in my parents’ eyes, they were considering adoption. My mom had miscarried twice already. Then they realized they were pregnant. Dilemma. They decided not to adopt and I grew up an only in my house (I do have sisters – 3 actually. But we did not grow up together, unfortunately I’m a lot younger than they and we lived too far apart.)
Then we had Calista. C-section and a few other issues made me think not going through that again might be nice! Brian and I talked about it and then, surprise! Pregnant with Elam!
Elam just turned 2 in December and Calista 4 in February. For a few months, I found myself saying, “never again will I have a baby!” or “How do parents of 4 kids do it?!” and so on.
In the last few weeks, hints about adoption have been coming my way. A friend at church is part of our church ministry for orphans and foster children. A woman at MOPS shared about their story of adopting from Ethiopia. Verses in my quiet time last night. Verses in worship music at church and a “billboard” on a bench during my run were two just today.
Last week I was doing research. Calista was asking about adoption and I told her millions of children don’t have moms and dads. Actually, UNICEF estimates between 143 and 210 million orphans are in the world today.
Calista was asking how many one million was. I showed her a picture of a crowd and she said, “are we going to adopt all of those?!” I said our house wasn’t big enough, but asked how many did she think would fit? “3 or 4.”
Perhaps we will never be on a plane to pick up another Asker family member. But we are starting to dream about trying to make a difference in one orphan’s life.
Psalm 82:3
Defend the weak and the fatherless;
uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed.