Kindredship with other Adoptive Parents

We meet new people all the time in our life these days...since we have moved to another country:)

Sooner or later, somehow, someway, the fact that Erika is adopted always seems to come up.  Quite often, the response is, "I never would have known Erika was adopted."  And I like that.  I like that there is no difference in how I love each of my three children.  I like that God has so perfectly blended her into our lives these last three and a half years, that it is as if I gave birth to her.  Really, I feel like I did, then remember, oh  yeah, I got her as an already sleeping through the night, walking, talking, baby:)

The other thing I always hear is that they are surprised how open we are about it.  That Erika knows she is adopted and it is as natural as the color of her hair.  It is just part of her story.  Just like me being adopted into God's family is a part of my story.  But that is what I want...so one day, it isn't like this big dramatic:  I WAS ADOPTED? thing.  She knows God chose her just for our family...and our family just for her.

Adoption is such a peculiar thing.  I remember the first time I laid eyes on Josh....and then Tori 2 and half years later...I was in love, but yet, it was if I had always known them.  And instantly, my whole goal was to protect, love, nurture them.  You see, I had those same feelings the first time I met and held Erika.  As if we were two people that had been searching for each other.  I knew the moment I held her that she was my child, and I did not want her to go home with her foster family.  I wanted to scoop her up and take her home with me.  I remember when we finally got her to come and live with us, wanting the world to meet her, yet to protect her from that world as well.  Erika was my daughter the moment we met.  And there is no way to explain it other than that.

I have a new friend here who has adopted a boy here in Belize.  Unfortunately, they are not able to bring him to the US yet.  He is precious.  And he is her child in every way.  She has cared from him from birth.  And they are so attached.  She has sacrificed everything to be here with him until she can take him home.  It was so neat to visit with her and getting to know her because we have the same heart.  Adoption changes you in some ways...  It makes you understand things about God that you didn't before you walk through the adoption process.  It makes your faith in God grow...it just has to.  You have to believe Him to get you through the paperwork after your heart is already fully vested in this little person.

Starting Erika right from the beginning in homeschool is a little scary for me.  It is a lot of pressure.  It all rests on me.  But on the other hand, I am so honored that I get to be the one to teach her.  SHE LOVES SCHOOL.  And that just makes me blessed.  She is always looking forward to what we will learn tomorrow.  And I think it was God's plan all along for her to be homeschooled.  Because she is thriving in it.  But God has given us special friends that are able to come and play and she has friends at church as well.  So, I am not worried about her "social" life, as so many do.  We are social people...Erika will be social too.

Tonight I just want to walk down memory lane a little...our first family photo shoot after Erika had lived with us for 6 months, and then her adoption day...our love only grew deeper, but we loved her right from the start...

who could not fall in love with this beauty?  this is about 6 months after Erika came to live with us:)

where did my baby go??? she is so big now.

Love how she feeds Daddy here.

LOVE how our 88 year old grandmother came to downtown Houston for her grandaughter's adoption:)

Happy day for me...

and my parents

love this

AND she loves these mints...

and love that my grandmother in New York COULD NOT WAIT to meet her newest grandaughter last summer...


As I was going through the pictures, I could not find one of Lee's parents with just Erika:(  But what I wanted to show in all these pictures is that ADOPTION is so special and that it not only affects you, but your entire family.  And our family was so supportive and is so loving of Erika as well.  We are so blessed.