The following post is from !dea-Camper, Sarah Markley, of The Best Days of our Lives.
***
I met April a few months ago when she was already in the middle of her story. I felt like I’d come a bit late to the party but as I plopped myself down on the sofa in the middle of new friends, all I wanted to ask was
What did I miss?
Over a couple weeks I learned April and her husband, Brian, had already been selected for an Ethiopian adoption. They were waiting waiting waiting for the invitation to go to Africa to visit their children and to complete the first in what would be two trips. I also found out that although April could be seen on stage at our new church most Sundays in Southern California, her heart was in Ethiopia.
Orphans. I realized our new church was firmly and resolutely devoted to help fix the worldwide crisis in the ways that we can.
We met Tony and his wife Erin at about the same time. Erin is Caucasian and Tony is Korean so, like many families at Newsong, they are a culturally mixed family. The first time I saw them wheel their family through the door of a birthday celebration for another boy at church, I wondered who belonged to whom. They’ve added to their already beautiful family another boy who matches neither Tony nor Erin in race, but echoes their whole family in full-faced smiles and love. Zeph is a foster child.
Tony and Erin don’t know how their story will end. Will they be able to adopt Zeph? How long will he be with them? No one knows. Even April and Brian {who have just returned from their final trip from Ethiopia with Judah and Addisse strapped firmly to themselves} don’t know how their story will essentially end or where their journey will take them.
What these two families have in common, aside from their desire to care for and protect children without parents, is their willingness to lay out their WHOLE HEARTS for the good of another person. And in this case a child.
They’ve risk their love being unreturned. They’ve risked courts saying “NO”. They’ve risked hearts and lives being split open because a child they once held and sang to sleep might not be theirs to keep.
When I watch them I wonder
how
far
I
could
stretch my own heart. Like them.
I’ve just begun reading Wess Stafford’s book, Too Small to Ignore: Why the Least of These Matters Most. Before I began reading, I believed that I loved children. I love my children, I feel a sincere fondness toward other children, and I do, in all honesty, like to be around little ones. I’m a mother for goodness sake.
But I’m realizing that although I LOVE them, I don’t often see them as IMPORTANT in the same way that God does.
Let the children come, He says.
Become like a child, He says.
Don’t cause them to stumble, He asks.
Care for widows and orphans, He says.
I’m inspired by Tony and Erin. I’m anxious for April and Brian and I can’t wait to meet their babies. And I know that God picked my own family up and put us gently in the middle of a community who cares deeply for the orphans of the world.
And when I asked both April and Tony to help me on this post, they both separately said the same thing: That it really does take a whole community to support, love and help families who choose adoption or fostering. No one family can do this on their own. They need ALL of us.
Does all of this mean that the Markleys are on a journey to adopt? Not necessarily. But it does mean that we are called to help meet the needs of the families around us who are on that journey. I need to listen, to observe, to ask and to pray. And then I need to offer my time and resources in ways that are supportive of families who are intimately involved in orphan care.
And then sit back to watch their stories unfold.
Have you adopted or fostered? How have you been involved in the lives of families who participate in orphan care?
In just a few weeks, the Idea Camp: Orphan Care conference will happen in Northwest Arkansas. Oh how I wish I was there! Believe me, I was unable to move both heaven and earth {which is what would have had to happen in order for me to go}. If you are in the area, please consider going. The Idea Camp community is one of the most amazing collections of people I have EVER come across and some of my absolute favorite people on the planet will be there. It is simply beautiful watching God’s people actually doing what they are called to do.
Click for Idea Camp: Orphan
Follow April’s story on her blog and on twitter.
Follow Tony on twitter.
