This is why...

Chad and I are constantly saying the words "when" and "why." It seems as though we can't go 2 minutes without asking, or being asked, questions about the adoption. When will we hear? When will we go to Africa? Why does it cost so much? Why is it so hard? Why is it taking so long? When is God going to intervene and create real change for these children? WHY?????

I confess that, though I pray daily for our son in Ethiopia, I have stopped asking God these questions because I am tired of not getting an answer in the form I want (let's be honest, through a referral!!!) and because asking is a constant reminder that I am NOT in control.

So, when I run across something beautiful that reminds me of WHY we chose to adopt from Ethiopia (as opposed to domestic adoption like our adoption of Devon which is MUCH easier), I feel God speaking to me. You see, though I have stopped asking these questions through prayer, they are still written on my heart. And my God reads hearts!

I was really inspired today by this quote that I saw on another waiting family's blog (Thanks Vince and Alisa Martin!) This is why, y'all. This is why.

"Who was going t0 raise twelve million children? That's what I suddenly wanted to know...Who was teaching twelve million children how to swim? Who was signing twelve million permission slips for school field trips? Who packed twelve million lunches? ...Who will tell twelve million bedtime stories? ...Twelve million birthday parties? Who will wake in the night to eighteen million nightmares? Who will offer grief counseling to twelve, fifteen, eighteen, thirty-six million children? Who will help them avoid lives of servitude or prostitution? Who will pass on to them the traditions of culture and religion, of history and government, of craft or profession? Who will help them grow up, choose the right person to marry, find work and learn how to parent their own children? Well, as it turns out, no one. or very few. There aren't enough adults to go around."

Who?????
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
Then I said,
“Here am I! Send me.”

From Melissa Faye Greene's "There Is No Me Without You"