With 6 you get eggroll...

Sometimes I like to pretend my life has a soundtrack.  Before I had an Iphone, this was aided by my cell’s ringtone of Toto’s Africa.You can’t have a bad day singing, “Duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh…I hear the drums echoing tonight…”

I think right now, the soundtrack would be The Cars’ You Might Think I’m Crazy.  

You see, Sloan and I are adopting from the Congo.  Which is a pretty dangerous place to go.  It is, in fact, the poorest nation in the world.  It is the most dangerous place in the world to be female.  There are roughly 5 million orphans.  515 out of every 1,000 children born in the DRC will not make it to age 5 due to malaria, malnutrition, parasites, or HIV.   And after that, life expectancy tops out at 42.  We have close friends adopting from there, an acquaintance who has just returned from there, so it seemed a natural fit for us.  

But the more we researched and subsequently fell in love with the Congo by watching the Congolese symphony and reading about other folks’ adoption journeys, we both knew in our hearts that there was no way we could go into the Congo and bring home only one child.  We always felt that after this adoption there would be another, so we are prayerfully hoping that we can be a family of six sooner rather than later.  A boy AND a girl, preferably a sibling group ranging in ages 0-4.  

People’s responses have varied from the excited to the quizzical.  Someone responded, “Wow, four under the age of 5.  You must be very patient.  Are you a patient mother?”  

I had visions of me snapping at Henry because it took him (no lie) 35 minutes to get dressed in the morning or how most days Gracie has lost all stuffed animal privileges because the child can't seem to keep her hands to herself.  So I responded,  “Well, not particularly.  But I’m guessing that an impatient mommy beats no mommy.”

Then I’ve also been told about how hard it will be.  As in eyes getting wide and saying “Oh, wow.  Are you sure, sweetheart?  They will be African.  Will you even know how to do her hair?”

Ahem.

It is only by the grace of God I haven’t stabbed anybody in the eye with a fork.  I consider that a sign that I’m really patient.  Also, I have a toddler in my house right now who is making me well aware that adding another toddler and an infant to the mix will be difficult.  The depth of the pool that we are jumping into has crossed our minds more than once.  

The truth is, the folks who REALLY know our hearts aren’t surprised by this in the least.  Didn’t Henry say all those months ago that he needed a brother and a sister?  So while we are a bit afraid of the noise and chaos it will bring, we are eagerly looking forward to seeing God show up in our lives.  While we have very little to give, we know that in Jesus’ hands, our meager abilities will be enough for a multitude.  We will be a LOUD party of 6, but Jesus will be our hope and salvation.

You might think I’m crazy.  And you might be right.   But we are choosing to rock out to a little Rihanna because we've found love in a hopeless place.  For if God can defeat death, I’m fairly certain He can make our crazy gloriously beautiful.