Day 12

12. Facts
-Meet the family behind Christmas Tree Face- Austin, Anna (dad and mom), Corbin, Mila, and Leo. And a faithful but pitiful dog named Nora. And sometimes we post pics of the quail, some of them are named, most are not. 
-Before Austin and I were married, we worked in Romanian orphanages with my parents’ non profit. In fact, we thought we would one day move to Romania and run a camp for abandoned children. God had a different story in mind (at least for now) but that was where the desire to care for marginalized kids was born.
-I, (Anna) always wanted to adopt. I didn't always want to have children biologically. Pregnancy- ew.
-Working with abandoned kids, having a long, strong desire to be adoptive parents, and reading everything on the topic was great preparation but actually parenting a child from a hard place rocked our world. Still rocks it. We do the best we can and fall on our knees a lot- asking for God’s grace in our lives and protection in our children’s lives for the dumb things their parents do at times.
-I’m ready for adoption number 2, 3, or 6… Austin is not there yet. I’m simultaneously annoyed that he isn’t there and filled with relief. Because it’s hard man.
-Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it isn’t good.
-And we can do hard things.
-Therefore, I think we are ready for #2 ;)
-We love that the church gets a special call to action to care for marginalized children. We both are very blessed to be in an orphan care ministry at our local church and desire to see it grow and reach many, many families who are waiting to bring their little ones home, struggling with life in the trenches, or who desire to support these families.
-Reflecting on these topics this month has been rather therapeutic for me. I hope that no one takes my ramblings as any sort of rule or best practice- like I said, we try, we fail, we ask for grace and forgiveness and try again. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that adoption reveals our greatest weaknesses and can refine them into our greatest blessings if we allow God to work.