Earlier this week, my 3 year old son, Josiah, was sitting beside me at the kitchen table. I was finishing up some charting for work and he was munching on a snack. His brown little sun-kissed legs were swinging back and forth under the bench he was sitting on and he was looking out the window.
“Mom”, he said, “We got Lexi from the farm, right?” Lexi is our German Shepherd. “That’s right, Joe.” “And mom”, he said again, “and we got Jedi from a farm too, right?” Jedi is our schnoodle. “Well, kinda, Joe. We went to a kennel where they raise dogs and Isaac got to pick Jedi out for his birthday but then, yes, we did take him to our house.” He thought about that a bit and then said, “I came after Jedi and before Lexi. Where did I come from again?”
We proceeded to have the conversation many of us have over and over again with our adopted children. I told him about his first mama and how she got sick and could not take care of him any more and she asked us to be his family from now on and we said “Yes!” and I am so, so grateful that I got a chance to be his mama since his first mama couldn’t do it anymore.
Then he said, “Ooooohhhh! That’s right! And when I came…..”(he looked down the hallway where the upstairs bedrooms are)there wasn’t a room for me was there.” “No Josiah, there wasn’t. ” You see, we had been approved for a pre-school age girl from another country who could share a room with our then 4 year old daughter, so we weren’t planning a nursery for a 6 month old baby boy. We were never matched with her and were told not to pursue it anymore and we were shocked and devastated……..”But then……”tells Josiah, “we went away for the weekend and your friends all came in while we were gone and Nana and Papa and……… mom! They built us a room for Josiah! And we came home……..(feet still swinging but a bit faster now) and we came in the house and I saw my new room and I said WOW!!!!!!!”
Now this isn’t exactly how the event happened but he has it more right than wrong. I came in crying and was led to the brand new bedroom that our team of family and friends had added by chopping a hole in one wall for a door and putting in another wall to separate one large room into two smaller rooms……all so that our baby boy could have his first ever place of his very own. I dropped to my knees, feeling overwhelmed with gratitude and humility and ultimately the love of our Father God. We cried, we stood amazed, we listened as the team shared all they had done for our family in 3 days…
We said yes to His call to adopt a 5th child but that journey ended much differently than it started. Had we known it was God’s plan for a baby boy to join us and not a 4 year old girl, I don’t know if we would have stayed the course. I’m hoping we would have, but logistically…….we did not have a room for a baby boy.
For us, we gave Him our yes and then we gave Josiah a yes and then about a year and a half later……..God assigned an amazing crowd of people to build a room in this house that could be forever his. Our yes had to come before the provision. I know, I know. That is a very scary thing. You thought this would be a sweet, feel-good story, not a scary one, huh. Well. It is both. Most of all, it is Josiah’s story and he loves to help me tell it over and over again, with all the extras his little heart and mind can add…….and beyond that……this is one of God’s best stories, too.
May we all be willing to consider a yes without doing the math of the costs of adoption, the number of bedrooms, the lifestyle changes adding another child will cause…….may we remember all the Josiahs of the world that really do deserve a “Wow” or two in their stories.
