I'm Not Really Sure What to Call This One

As children of God we are ADOPTED, we did nothing to earn the title "Child of God." We are His because He chose to make us His, even those of us that are the most difficult, unlovely, weird, whatever ... Yet Drew and I have received negative comments from "Christians" about the fact that we are adopting a child with Down Syndrome. They hurt and make me angry all at once. I wish I could make some people understand that we are not adopting because we naively think that our life will be a walk on the beach, or because we are ignorant of the fact that having children with special needs means things may be more difficult. I want to say to those people "We know what we are doing may appear crazy, we realize we are not rich, we know that at times we will grow weary, but where is your faith?" "There is so much more to life than being comfortable!"

We would rather never have nice cars, a big house, nice clothes etc... so that we are able to adopt children into our home, love them, make them our sons and daughters and provide for them. This is what God has called us do and we are so happy to do it. We would never have thought that we would be these people, but God knew all along that he was preparing us to be parents to children with special needs. I can't imagine doing anything else with my life and I don't want to.

Nikolai is our son, the same way Lane and Hudson are our sons. It just so happens that Nikolai has temporarily been in the custody of an orphanage in Ukraine. But, he has always been our son and God has always known that. Some just don't understand that. I don't fully understand myself, why we didn't find him sooner, how our hearts can love this little boy, who we have never even met, so very much. The only way I can explain anything is that it just has to be a God thing. And it kills us that on April 7, when Nikolai turns 6, he won't be with us to celebrate his birthday together. We think about him, worry about him and pray for him, just as much as we do Lane and Hudson. He is our son.

It just amazes that any one who claims to be a child of God would not fully understand and support another Christian's decision to adopt. Where would you be if God had not adopted you?