Big House Made Me Cry

OK, not everyone in the world knows about this, but now you all will. Andrea and I are very seriously considering adopting a set of 17 year old twin girls. We have been looking at this for nearly two weeks, thinking and praying about it, having many conversations with many people.

Here's how it all happened. I opened the mail two weeks ago and received a letter asking if anyone in our church might be interested in adopting/hosting 3 kids who are juniors at Osseo High School. All 3 are siblings and are Panamanian Chinese kids. They moved to the US one year ago and live with their 22 year old brother. Their mother is deceased and their father has essentially nothing to do with them. The older brother can not afford to support the whole family, so thy are looking to find a host home for the other 3.

Back up to before we even got this letter: we have thought about adopting for at least a decade. In fact, we have given our name and phone number several times to youth pastors who work with at-risk youth, telling them to call us if they happen to be working with teen girls who are pregnant and who are considering adopting their baby out. Adoption is a frequent topic of conversation for me and Andrea and we have again and again committed to one another and to God that we'd adopt kids if God brought it to us. Andrea even has told me several times that she believes that God will call us to adopt multiple kids, not just one.

So, we were immediately excited about these girls. To this basic excitement, add these things...First, the girls are from Panama, and their primary language is Spanish, which Andrea has been busily studying for about 4 years. Second, we realized that these girls are related to several people at the Oriental Grill in Maple Grove, which is a restaurant we frequent (they are all Chinese Panamanians and we speak Spanish to them!!). Third, we realized that we've already met these girls--at a wedding last summer, the restaurant catered the reception and Andrea met the girls, who were working as catering servers. Last, we also realized that these girls live in the apartment building where our worship pastor lives...and they have met the girls several times. So, the world is an incredibly small place!!

We have met with someone from the Chinese Christian Church, where the girls have been going. They made first time faith commitments a month ago and are growing in their new faith. After meeting with them and learning a lot about the twins, we set up dinner last Friday night. Oh, the people from the church have advised us to take the girls only--the 18 year old boy can and will stay for now with the 22 year old brother.

The girls, the 18 year old brother and someone from the church came over. We had a great time...it was very fun, and our kids really liked the girls. These girls are intelligent, sweet and full of laughter. We ate pizza, showed one another card tricks, toured our home, and talked a lot about school, hobbies, music, church.

We got an email back from the girls the next day. They really liked us and want to come live with us.

So, we're moving forward with this. The girls will come for dinner some time this week and will come and stay the weekend this coming weekend. We'll maybe have one more week apart after that to think and pray about this. We're trying to process this well with our own kids, and we're still having a few necessary conversations with guidance counselors, family counselors, etc. And, we're still praying, making sure that we're doing what God has called us to.

Lisa and Alicia will be in church with us on Sunday, so any of you who are there will meet them.

This is an incredibly exciting thing. Today, I was roller skating with my kids at their school Valentine's skating party, and we were skating to contemporary Christian music. The song "Big House" came on...I usually just sing along with it and don't think much about the lyrics. Suddenly, I'm singing about coming to the father's house (a house with lots and lots of room, with lots and lots of room, a big yard where we can play football). I was suddenly choking back tears as I thought about Lisa and Alicia maybe coming home to a father's house for the first time. Ever. Our place is big enough, our table has plenty of food, and the yard's plenty big...and our hearts have room for these 2 girls. So, Audio Adrenaline's campy song from 15 years ago reduced me to tears while I was out skating with my kids. Adoption is a pretty powerful thing. Pray for us, our kids and the twins!! Thanks.