Responding In Faith

Yesterday was such a busy day!  It started out with the Women’s Christmas Tea at church and then straight to basketball practice for Anthony.  After that we headed to Charlotte to meet Pastor Kofi and his wife along with many other families who have adopted from Liberia.  It was such a great evening!  I am so glad we went.  There were so many Liberian children mixed in with their American siblings.  I don’t think I ever really got it figured out which children belonged to which parents!  All I knew was that the children out numbered the adults…by a lot!

Scott and Denise were the couple who graciously opened up their home for the Christmas Open House to honor pastor Kofi and his wife.  When I initially received the invitation to attend, I thought surely they really didn’t want us, maybe they were just being nice.  So I emailed Denise back and explained that we have seven children and that we would have to bring them with us.  If she didn’t want them to come, I fully understood.  Many people are intimidated by the size of our family.  She emailed me right back and told me that they had six children and would love for us to bring ours!

I think both Russ and I were a little apprehensive about going, but we both felt pulled to go.  We weren’t sure we would “fit in” and really didn’t know what to expect.  As soon as we walked in, we received a wonderful welcome!  One of the first comments we received was, “This is probably one of the few places you will go and all the families will have bus envy!”  I knew I was going to get along just fine with these people!

All the kids ran around and played and the adults talked and talked.  It was great meeting Pastor Kofi.  What a great man with such a heart for the Lord.  He went around and spoke to all the Liberian children catching up with them and finding out about their lives.  Some of the children that were present were some of the original children that were in the boy’s choir that was traveling around several years ago and had appeared on the Opera Show.

We enjoyed all the families so much.  The thing that amazed me was that there were so many with large families!!  I met, very briefly, a woman named Daryl who I believe has adopted 11 or 12 Liberians.  She has 17 children total.  I believe someone said she had recently retired from being a CEO of a big company.  Wow!  I would love to talk with her again!!  We met another family who had 7 children, Heather and Bill.  One of their Liberian jewels was adopted through a disruption and has done very well.  So many fascinating people!

It truly did my heart good to meet all of these amazing families and especially all the amazing children, both black and white.  It made me even more excited about getting our boys home!  There was so much support in that one house to last me a life time!  At one point in the evening, my precious Hannah ran up to me and said, “Mommy, meeting all of these children has made me home sick for my brothers!  I can’t wait for them to get here!”  Oh, Hannah hit the nail right on the head!  This wonderful day made me home sick for the boys, too!

My kiddos made some wonderful new friends as well as Russ and I.  I asked Russ on the way home if it was good speaking to other adoptive fathers.  His comment was that it was just good to speak with other fathers of large families.  That was really huge for him and for me.  Russ said that they were all so down to earth.  They didn’t look at him like he was weird for having a large family.  So many times we run into people and they seem so intimidated by the “largeness” of our family.  These families lived similar lives.  We really felt like we could just put our guard down!  I enjoyed sharing large family struggles and trying to find methods to our madness!  It was great fun!

Thanks so much Denise and Scott for opening up your home to all of us!  It was so great getting connected with other Liberian families, but not just that, other large families who love the idea of a bus!  We have made some great life long friends!  I look forward to staying connected!