Table for Five: 30 Posts, 30 Days: Adoption...Friday's Family

I am so excited for today's guest post. Mary and met while living in Suzhou, China. Although our time as expats only overlapped for six months, I know that we will keep in touch for a lifetime. I appreciate Mary taking the time to write a post for me and isn't their Christmas card from last year just the cutest?!

Hmmm, I asked Kara if we could be the Friday Family and well now I am not so sure I can do this. I am not a good writer. Big deep breath, I know why I don’t blog now, here goes.

How did we get here? Some days I am not sure. We were going along a happy family one, two then there were three. Mom and Dad and three boys I mean. We had a little set of stair steps. Two were born in the US and the third in China. We were long term expats, loving our China life and China in general. We had a groove, we had friends, we had summers in the US, fabulous holidays and life was full. Then one day God sent me an email. He had been talking to me, but He decided He had to get my attention. So there it was. Our little family responded to attend an adoption seminar. We went and knew it was for us. We talked about it with the boys and they were all in agreement. At that time we had an 8, 10 and 12 year old. I think none of us really knew what we were agreeing on or saying yes to but in many ways thank goodness we did not know. We jumped in with all 10 feet and did not look back. I did not do extensive research or read every blog I could or have the timelines for China adoptions memorized…..we just went on faith and did it. I did have some amazing friends who did all those other things so I would just ask them. We knew we wanted a Chinese child. We had lived there for 10+ years at that time and knew we would have much to offer a child from China. We loved the culture that she came from and we hoped to share it with her. We knew also we needed to adopt a special needs child because of our ages and the ages of our children we could not wait for years for a healthy child.

My message to anyone thinking about it is to just do it. If you are entertaining the idea you can do it. I am amazed so many days at the joy and love she has brought our family. None of us could imagine our family without her. She completes us. We thought for a long time about adoption before answering that email and had done nothing because we were too afraid. I am so glad we finally took that leap. It was huge and not so huge at the same time. I think we are pretty average people just trying to live a good life, raise good kids and have some fun along the way. If we can do this anyone can. Heck I know a lot of ladies that are way better moms than I am. In the end the love for and from our daughter is the same as the love for and from our boys. Some days it is even more special. Like today the one year anniversary of receiving her in our arms as our daughter in the provincial office in China. I cannot believe it has only been a year. It seems like she has been with our family as long as everyone else.

One thing I have noticed is that families like ours sort of become ambassadors for adoption. We are not on a crusade for adoption but I think it is pretty cool when people ask about it because they really want to know and learn more. I am happy to share our experience; it is not the same for all. I would like to think that my story would encourage someone else to adopt. I think if people open their hearts they will find that so many of us have the capacity to care for and love a child.

Mary