Archive for October, 2009
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Orphan Sunday, 11/8: Lord, change one heart, and let it be HIS.
(Orphan Sunday, 11/8, makes me think of our adoption story.)
Part 1: Being pro-life led me toward adoption.
Part 2
Before we were married, we had our family all planned out–2 boys, 2 girls–2 born to us and 2 adopted. Then we married, time passed, and reality happened. One after another our 4 blond, round boys were born–the cookie cutter kids, Johnny called them.
And anyway, as we understood it, adoption wasn’t really possible, and so therefore probably wasn’t needed. All we heard about were the long waiting times to adopt. And so adoption faded from our minds. What we didn’t realize was that those facts were true only about white, healthy infants.
Our assumptions were shaken when our friends adopted Micah and began to tell us and anyone who’d listen about the need for adoptive families for minority children. My dreams of adopting came alive again.
Over the next few years, periodically I’d bring up the topic to let Johnny know I was thinking about adoption. The conversations helped each of us to know the heart of the other, but in the end each talk drifted off without a decision.
Our conversations went many directions as we explored the what-ifs. One seeming obstacle was this: Johnny was concerned about our age. He imagined us white-haired and near retirement as we guided another child through the teens. How would he or she feel about such old parents, and would we have the energy for the adolescent years again? Besides, weren’t we on the verge of a new chapter of life and ministry now, free from the afternoons of being soccer dad and carpool mom?
But to me, our age never seemed an issue. Yes, we’d be older and probably less energetic. But perhaps in our years of parenting so far we’d gained some wisdom that might help. Besides at the time of these talks, I was still younger than my mother had been when she bore her last child, and I had not yet passed out of the years of childbearing possibility.
During the months between those conversations, I prayed that God would change the mind of one of us, the heart of one, so we could come together to a definite yes or no. Of course, to be honest, that wasn’t all I asked. I wanted the change of heart to be Johnny’s.
(to be continued)
Saturday, October 31st, 2009
Orphan Sunday, 11/8: Something that involves my life
Orphan Sunday is coming up on November 8. Thinking about this sent me into my memories of adopting Talitha.
Our family was heavily involved in the pro-life movement through the years when rescues were a main public way of protesting abortion. Johnny spent one weekend in the county workhouse after being arrested while sitting in front of an abortion clinic. Another time we had to pick up our son, Benjamin, from the police department and go to court with him. He and some friends had been hauled in for chaining themselves to a clinic door to block it. Our younger children and I had spent many hours walking silently and praying.
As important as those things were, I began to dream of doing something pro-life that involved more of my life. When friends with teenagers adopted a baby boy, that spoke to my heart.
One day that adoptive father told me about a baby boy who was waiting for placement. I told Johnny about it right away, sure that he would feel just as strongly as I did that we should bring that baby into our home. He didn’t.
I didn’t take into account that I’d been thinking about this a lot, but it was a new idea to him.
(to be continued)
Friday, October 30th, 2009
We’d never do that
“We’d never do something like that at my regular Curves.” I was looking at the “Prayer Requests” white board on the wall at the Curves I visited in Georgia this summer.
The Curves employee was astounded. “Why not?” Standing there in small-town Bible Belt America, I found it hard to explain Minneapolis political/spiritual correctness.
Today, though, I had two reasons to rethink my certainty that “we would never do something like that.”
1. When I arrived at Curves this morning, I was the only one there so far to workout. When the attendant saw me coming, she changed the music (which is never offensive anyway) to worship music with a beat.
2. After I’d finished my workout and was getting ready to leave, she asked if I could wait 30 seconds. She copied a page from a book, highlighted a couple of lines and handed it to me.
The book was the Bible, and the lines were: “I am the Lord your God, and there is no other. My people will never be ashamed again.” (Joel 2:27)
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009
Dad, be the Lead Failure in your family
Bob and Mary Horning and their family have become friends of mine since they came to our church quite a few years ago. Bob has been the leader extraordinaire of both of the wheelchair missions to Cameroon.
A few days ago there was a gathering of fathers of children with disabilities. Bob encouraged the men by recognizing that he and all of them are failures. So is every member of their families. So the men should be the lead failures for their wives and children.
John Knight was one of those fathers, and he has posted links at his blog to the audio and video of that message by Bob Horning.
