Stepping Out and Being Vulnerable

I've learned a big lesson already in my journey so far. When you step out in faith and choose to live against the norm, you make yourself vulnerable in many ways. We have experienced overwhelming encouragement, and for that, thank you. However, we have also experienced disapproval too. This does not come as a surprise, but the reasons for the disapproval are interesting.

We have gotten a lot "Why not adopt domestically?" or "Why not an older child?" or "What about ______ country instead?" These questions are fair. There are tremendous needs in our country and around the world. No orphan is more worthy than another. Why Ethiopia, then? We were led there. 

In 1 Corinthians 12:12-20, it addresses the importance that we all respond to our unique call. "Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free —and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many. Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be?  As it is, there are many parts, but one body." 

My encouragement is this: if you feel passionately about domestic adoption, adoption of older children, or adopting for another country, find a way to meet that need. Adoption is not for everyone, but you can help support the cause in some way. If we all felt passionately about the same thing, many needs around the world would be ignored.