Walking In Faith

Last week I spoke with a family that adopted 3 siblings from Colombia, two years ago.  It was a difficult conversation, that left both Jason and I somewhat shaken.  The parents basically stated that the last two years of their lives have felt like hell, and encouraged us to strongly consider what we are about to embark on.  Wow.  The transition for them and their 3 children has been much more difficult than they ever could have imagined.  In public the children appear to be well-adjusted and happy, however in the privacy of their home the kids behave totally differently, and not in a good way.  At least one of their children displays Reactive Attachment Disorder, and they have struggled with many many difficulties.

We learned a lot about the potential risks of international adoption and older child adoption in our pre-adoption training classes.  Some of the severe cases of Reactive Attachment Disorder are absolutely terrifying.  Jason and I debated at length whether we thought that we could parent "older" children that may have had painful, difficult early lives.  We really searched our souls on this...  Do we think we have the capacity to help these little people heal from their early hurts and losses?  Do we have the capacity to love and commit to kids that may outwardly reject us or hurt us out of fear of being rejected themselves?  Can we really do this?

We believe that the answer is yes.  We hope and pray that our boys will be resilient, and that they have not suffered at the hands of the adults they have known, and that they will have the capacity to heal given lots of love and time.  We feel that we are truly moving forward with steps of faith.  There is so much that we don't know about our boys.  But we do know that great reward can come from great difficulty.  And what better thing to commit your life to than to help a child...or 3 children? 

Maybe we are naive, or maybe just hopeful.  Perhaps our sons will adjust with ease, we hope for this.  However, some days we feel scared to death about what could be.  Yet...we continue to move toward our sons, knowing that we may be pushed farther than we ever imagined, and hopefully grow more than we ever could have forseen.  We pray that they are safe, and we thank everyone who is praying right along with us.