Love knows no color

Yesterday we had the family over for birthdays, swimming, and supper. As we were all sitting around talking, my sister in law told us about an encounter she had at Walmart recently. I couldn't stop thinking about it last night (hence the blog post). Basically, someone stopped her as she was entering Walmart with her kids and chewed her out. This lady said that she (my sister in law) had no business adopting two black children. I was shocked as I listened. I was glad it was her and not me (she handled it very well and I don't like confrontation). And then as I pondered it more last night I was getting upset.

This is obviously something we thought about before deciding to adopt from Ethiopia. Our daughter would look different than us and we live in a predominately white community. This is something we tried to prepare for (as much as you can). But this type of confrontation is something I hoped wouldn't happen.

Did you know that there are roughly 5 million orphans in Ethiopia??? That is only one country in the whole continent of Africa! These kids need a home, white or black it doesn't matter. They are children and deserve a family and love.

Jada is completely a part of our family. For a while I wondered if she had properly bonded. (This is a big deal if you talk to any adoptive parents). I have no doubt now. She is just one of us. We all love her, and at the same time get frustrated with her. We rejoice over her achievements and mourn over her losses. She is the princess of the house and yet just "one of the boys". We laugh at her and with her and can't imagine our lives without her. I have no doubt that she was meant to be a part of our family. We aren't the perfect family. We make mistakes. We will make mistakes in parenting her. We will teach her about Ethiopia and make her proud of her heritage, but she will be American. We will love her, respect her, discipline her, give her a safe place to come home to, and teach her about Jesus. These are the most important things. Maybe there are things that we won't do as well as someone of her race could do. But when you wash away all the unimportant things, there's no difference.

God has blessed me. Tremendously. I was raised with two parents who loved me and each other. They took me to church every week. I had lots of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents. I always had food to eat, clothes to wear, a bed to sleep in, an education and on and on and on. I've been reading Radical by David Platt (post on this coming later....amazing book!!). One statement really jumped out at me. He says that we are blessed for God's glory. In other words, the blessings that God gives to me should be given back to bring him glory. That is why we adopted. He asked. We had to say yes. He said Ethiopia. We said okay. God gets all the glory. It bothers me when people say "you are so good" or "wow, she is really lucky". It's not about either of those things. God gave to us so we could give back to Him. As Christians we should be changing the world, bringing glory to God. He deserves it, we don't.

Adoption isn't easy. Sure, sometimes things go smoothly, but Satan will always try to destroy what is good. This little encounter was a bump in the road. But, I think God has used it for good (at least in my life, maybe not my sister in law's!) :) I am reminded of all I've been given. I've been reminded of all God asks of me. And I'm reminded that Jesus said life would be hard. He said we would be persecuted and hated for His sake. He said anyone who doesn't give up everything cannot be His disciple. He didn't mince words. But God is also love. He became man to die for me. He said do not be afraid of the world for I have overcome it.

Thankful to be adopted into God's family and thankful for how God has changed me through our adoption!