Choices

I never knew there were so many choices in adoption. First, there are the choices of domestic, foster care, and international adoption. Then you decide if you want a newborn, older baby, or older child. Not to mention, once you've decided as we have:

International,

any age baby, hmm, maybe under 15 mos,

now you have to decide where (we've narrowed down to Africa, now we have to decide on a country), what age, gender and the health of a child.

It all seems like so many choices, yet what is so comforting and I keep reminding my kids of this, God has already chosen our child for our family!

Psalm 139:16 tells us:

"You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed."

Now, we have been looking at an agency that we've been drawn to, AWAA, we've been reading about their Africa programs and only seem to qualify for Ethiopia. :) These things are so wonderful because I can see God's hand guiding us thru the decisions. The girls have had some input here, Big Sis would like a Chinese orphan and Little Sis an African orphan. They have different reasons, but one of the better ones was when Little Sis said that she didn't want a baby from China because the baby would grow up to speak Chinese (she's quite worried we wouldn't be able to communicate as a family). Oh, to have an innocent mind!

Naturally, the girls have also been weighing in on gender also, they both want a brother. Now again, Little Sis would like an older brother, but I'm not sure we are going that way this time ;) So, Kelly and I have been talking about boys and girls and running it around in our heads. I've told everyone to remember that we don't get to pick gender in a pregnancy, so why now? But God seems to be putting little boys in my mind thru little things because I tend to lean toward a girl (hey, I already know what to do with girls!). Yesterday I was just reading about how most families waiting for adoption want girls, it's sad to me to think people will somehow be easier attached or love will come easier to a girl. I know a couple little boys from my friends that are so squeezable and I love them and their not even mine! What worries me is the wild, loud little boys that love to knock down blocks immediately after the tower is built. (This describes those squeezable boys to a T) I just don't see myself dealing well with he destruction of my house for fun ;)

Did I mention my girlfriend of 3 boys is trying to pray a boy into my family?!

Who knows what we will actually put on the application, maybe we'll put both and leave it entirely up to God. Before bed last night, Kelly told me to pick heads or tails and we flipped for it, he says God already decided with that, so there you go! LOL! Decisions, decisions!