Slanted Thoughts

This morning started with cuddles and tickles with our kids in our bed. They love to come into our bedroom on Saturday mornings and crawl under the covers. No matter how sleepy I am, it is one of my favorite times of the week. How will we fit four kids into our queen bed for snuggles? That will be a fun, crazy mess.
Then I baked double chocolate chip muffins and made eggs on toast - Brent and Eirinn's favorite breakfast. Good thing eggs are cheap because we will need a full dozen every Saturday starting next year. Eirinn should be able to help make them then.
Once we were all sat at table and ready to eat, I opened the EXTENSIVE adoption manual and starter kit. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Why don't I feel more stressed about this? Why do I just feel happy?
As if reading my mind, Chad said to me, "This is what we are supposed to be doing." Meaning, this is God's will for us. He is our portion. We are experiencing the goodness and kindness lavished on us by a God who blesses beyond measure and keeps his promises.

Every day is like that right now. In any given moment, I consider how we would be living life - accomplishing tasks, traveling to school, fixing dinner, playing outside - as a family of six instead of a family of four. More on that magic number later.  :)

In my first blog post, I shared some of the backstory that brought us into the adoption process. And I promised to share how we got to Colombia. Here is the part two you've all been waiting for...or not. But here it is anyway!

Having attempted several times to enter foster care certification, God's firm but gentle hand held us back from that. Then, over the Christmas holidays, our local Christian adoption agency posted on Facebook that they were urgently advocating for a Colombian sibling group of four - yes, FOUR - kids. Lifeline works with our church and with the crisis pregnancy center where I volunteer, so we were already familiar with the agency. They also help facilitate the foster classes that we had tried to join.
About a year and a half ago, we even went to an informational meeting about adopting through Lifeline. But when we left that meeting, both Chad and I felt like international adoption was not the path for us. And we were right - at the time, it wasn't. We lived in a different house, had different debts, and were not ready.

When the four-sibling group popped up in my Facebook feed, I immediately felt a pull on my heart. But (shame on me!) I thought Chad would have a nervous breakdown if I suggested we adopt them.  - - Never underestimate how God is intimately working through your spouse! This calls to mind a moment in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when Aslan calls a recovered, remorseful Edmund into his tent. He tells the other three siblings, "This will be a private talk with Edmund." I cherish the way Lewis presented the King and Creator's generous condescension to meet with us privately, forgive us, and redeem us personally. And each relationship he has with His own is unique. - -

One night we went to dinner with some friends, and we spent some of the evening talking about adoption and foster care in general. On the way home, I scrolled through Facebook to find that Lifeline had posted another urgent request on behalf of the quad squad (our nickname for them). So I showed their picture and the request to Chad. He reacted calmly and said maybe we should consider it.
Okay. What? Really? I did not expect that.
The next day he asked if I had heard anything about them. I hadn't. So he told me we should inquire about them and actually apply to adopt them.
I was so gleefully shocked, I simply said, "Okay." I contacted Lifeline, and they set up informal, initial interviews. We had a couple of phone interviews with the Colombian program coordinator.
Amazingly, praise be to God!, TEN families had come forward to apply for the quad squad's adoption. They were not matched to us. I assume they were, instead, matched to a family that would not need to by a new vehicle just to go to church or dinner. :)
We were disappointed, but not frustrated.

We were also sure - sure that we had not one child waiting for us in some unknown place, but children, plural, waiting for us. In Colombia.

I cannot give any other reasoning or justification other than God's will. It may sound cliché or pedantic - but that's what it is. That's why all the thoughts of raising $40,000 are blanketed in peace, not panic. That's why, without even having to analyze and investigate, Chad and I both - simultaneously, in unity and confidence - knew. We KNEW, you guys. Our kids are waiting for us in Colombia.

Next blog time, I'll tell you why four is a "magic" number. Hopefully, that post will be shorter. I will also share about the amazing support we have already received.

Please add the Brogans to your regular prayer list! If you want to pray specifically for our Colombian children, you can call them by Lolo and Lala. Those are the nicknames we call them by at home.

Thank you for reading and sharing this journey with us. Please share this blog as often as you feel so led.
As always, there is a link below to our fundraising page.

Hugs,
Christa

https://adopttogether.org/families/?fundraiser=brogan-family-adoption