Musings

"This isn’t about us building our family to look like we want it to look…this is about God using our family to accomplish what He wants. There is a huge difference." Lorraine Patterson (Super Mom)


Lately God is teaching me about family. Did you know that all across the country, the world even, there are these special families sprinkled about. They are all adoptive families and they tend to be the larger clans. They adopt internationally and domestically. They adopt infants all the way to teens and they adopt typically developing kids and kids with special emotional and physical needs. I have several cyber friends in families just like this and they are an awesome bunch! Here are some things I have noticed that they all seem to have in common. They are all Christian. Different denomonations but all deeply committed to Christ. They usually have a strong Mother figure, who is highly organized and a bit of a know it all because she has to know it all! These Super Moms toss around medical terms with ease because they have been in medical school since they first became mothers. They are well versed in behavioral issues as well as medical issues and have stories to prove it! If kids do it these women have dealt with it and they are a wealth of information. The Dads in these family all seem to have the gift of humor! These are some goofy dudes but they are the perfect Dads. They actually get IN the pool with the kids! They make sure the kids sleep on cool character sheets and have every rescue hero toy on the market if the child shows even the slightest interest. Most of these dads can be seen in family pictures cutting up! These parents are usually parenting babies, children, teens and adults. The kids, Wow what can you say about these kids! They are all beautiful, and smart and funny and well rounded. Most of these families home school. Most drive 12 to 15 passenger vans. Most of them have wheel chair ramps on their homes and pools used for both recreation and therapy.
It is a big production when the family goes out. They take over places by force of numbers but they are all nice and polite about it.

I'll bet you know a family like this. There is probably one in your church or neighborhood. You know them when you see them. You usually walk up to them and say "boy, you have your hands full..." or "are they ALL yours?" If you notice when you say this all the kids will look at Mom just to hear her say "YES, they are all mine". The next time you see this family I am talking about remember how hard it must be to be doing what they are doing. Think about how much good they are getting done in the span of their lives and instead of trivializing it with cliches BLESS them! Hold a door open, give them money, help them in some way. When you hear they are adopting again, don't judge them as if they are doing something wrong or insane. Try to understand that GRACE multiplies. Yes we all know you could/would not be able to do it and no one is asking you too. Help them! (ok, Stepping down from my soap box)