TOMORROW IS A BIG DAY

Tomorrow is the first day we bring our kids from the orphanage back to the guest house to stay with us... FOREVER!  From then on, they are with us until we go home to SD.

I'm not sure who it is bigger for, us or them. 

• For Shannon and I, it means the full time responsibility of caring for 2 more kids is never again negotiable.  They are our responsibility in raising them to be kids who love and serve God.  What a ride this thing called faith is.
  

• For them it means they will never again return to the only place they've ever called home.  So as not to induce fear in them that we might leave them there at the orphanage, we have been told we cannot take them back until much later in life to visit.  So since they arrived in the orphanage at only 1 month old, the kids will leave behind all they have ever really known as home, the "moms" who have loved and raised them, the beds they have slept in, most of the friends they have, the safety of their walls, and so much more will all be left behind.  Shannon and I may swing in during nap time to say hi and give them some status updates to the "moms", but our kids will not go back.  

I feel a lot of pressure to do this right.  The phrase, "You only get one chance to make a first impression"  has a whole new meaning in this context.  I'm praying daily that what I've learned in the last 11 years as a dad will give me some wisdom as we take on two more.  I'm praying for strength and discernment to avoid mistakes and Big Grace when I inevitably fall short.  Good thing God is bigger than me.

Keep praying.

PS: facebook adopton process updated with 14 new photos.