A Natural Family

So many aspects of the adoption process are completely and utterly random. From what I understand, there are stacks of parent applications and (sometimes) stacks of kids and whichever parent and kid happens to be on the top of the stack get matched together and so on down the line. There is no thought given to personality or temperament. Only to requirements laid out in the parents' home study: age, sometimes gender, and number of kids requested.

As many of you know, I am Christian, but not necessarily the type that feels that God is overly involved with every aspect of my individual life. (Explanations of that are better had face-to-face or not at all :)) So, when I hear things like "The perfect one for you just isn't ready yet," or "Just wait. You will know that your child was just meant to be with you," it makes me pause and think. This also comes into play when we receive information about children who fit our homestudy criteria (infant) that are waiting because of inconclusive test results. Should we trust the random process? By pursuing a match with the waiting child, are we abandoning the child that we would have been 'perfectly' randomly matched with? By going with the waiting child are we messing with 'His timeline' or following down a path that we already feel is aligned with the principles that we have chosen to live by? Or, better yet, did we receive word of this waiting child because he or she is the perfect one for us? Should I take the bits of information about him or her that are appealing to me and recognize those bits as 'signs' that this child was meant to be part of my family?

Let me tell you... it is hard to look at a picture of a beautiful baby and think... "Are you mine?"

Note to mother(s): Yes, I do believe God has a plan for our lives and no, I am not saying that your words of encouragement weren't helpful. They definitely were!! This blog is just a forum for me to air my thoughts...

Another note to mother: Maybe I should just use 'Can she fit in the dress?' as criteria for evaluating waiting babies??? !! :)

Over the past week, my parents and brothers came for a visit. In celebration of Justin's birthday, we went to our local Ethiopian restaurant. (Yes, we have a local Ethiopian restaurant. That is one of the beauties of living in such a diverse area!) Justin and I have eaten Ethiopian many times before. My mom has tried it once. However, the bros and dad hadn't ever given it a go. Dad was a bit leery, but J and I ordered for all! And... THEY LIKED IT! You can see various things on the plates in the pictures including chicken (on the bone, stewed in a yummy sauce), sweet potatoes and regular potatoes (the orange and yellow lumps), collard greens (Ethiopian style), lentils, split peas, as well as beef and lamb dishes. The folded up napkin looking things on the sides of the plate are Ethiopian bread called injera. Injera is a spongy sour tasting bread made from a starter that includes a flour made from a grain called 'Teff' that is apparently a staple in Ethiopia, but a little harder to come by in the U.S. They eat everything with injera. It serves as your knife, fork, and spoon. Which, as my brothers commented, works out suprisingly well due to the spongey nature of the bread itself.