I’m still trying to figure out if 10 years is a long time, or short. Thinking back ten Christmases ago. December 29, 2014. The day of our adoption. The day our family expanded to seven.
You’d think I’d be asking, “Can you believe it’s been ten years already?” But instead, it feels like we’ve been this family forever. And goodness—so much has happened. A decade of rapid-fire change for every one of us. Looking back on our first pictures, Jimmy was a child. Now a married man.
What a crazy thing we’ve done. A total adventure. This mama will be the first to say I tend to avoid adventure, except for the rare occasion when I know it’s God calling me out of the boat, bidding me to step out on the water—when I see His arms extended, waiting to catch me. Which is what happened for all of us, more or less. We had no idea what we were doing. And truth be told none of us would have lasted on top of that water very long. Each one of us, almost from the first, had some sense of the stormy black sea and the disorienting wind and we were terrified, weren’t we? Each in our own way.
Each of us did something harder than hard. And we were scared, but we were brave. Because bravery is not lack of fear, but the tenacity to walk terrified into the unknown. Goodness. What a lot of unknown. For Felipe and Jimmy most of all. (Although I’m sure the father of this operation might come in a close second.) What I can say for sure is this ten years is a tribute to a crazy kind of courage. When I think seriously about my own love of comfort. My death-grip on all things safe and secure and KNOWN…
I honestly don’t know.
I don’t know how any of us did it. Especially Felipe and Jimmy. You left every single known thing, and you put your trust in parents you didn’t know at all, and you faced a future of starting EVERYTHING over. I do not know how you did it. But you did. And you’re still doing it. And it’s working. And it’s turning out SO GOOD.
Of course, you all know I am not one to give too much credit to human potential when we’re looking straight into the face of Divine Provision. We wouldn’t have survived a single week without God’s grace. Without His supernatural orchestration. Every single one of us would have gone straight to the bottom of that stormy sea without the hand of Jesus reaching out, wrapping arms tight around us, hefting our sorry selves out of that water and back into the safety of His boat. Whether we know it or not—we have Jesus to thank for keeping us in His boat.
And it’s been a pretty great boat, all things considered.
Have you ever stopped to think of the ridiculous amount of blessing that’s sustained us these past ten years? Do you ever think maybe this family story is one crazy unfolding miracle?
I sure do.
I think about where we were ten years ago. Where we maybe thought we were going. And then I look at where we are today, and it makes me LAUGH. So many surprises along the way. Who’s married to who. Education and degrees. The places we live. How MANY of us we’ve turned into, and still growing. Who would have predicted any of it? Schools in Iowa and Tunja. Crown College. Columbia law. Sons on two coasts. A Daddy of four. Papi and Nana five times over.
A home on Green Lake!!
A dog, for Pete’s sake.
Seriously. What are the chances that one year into adding to this clan of boys an overwhelmed mama would say “yes” to a DOG?! Exactly zero. Except the same God who all but spoke from the heavens when He wanted to make it very clear about adoption, also Spirit-whispered Maple into existence. Lol.
So many things He has spoken into existence.
I will never really know how hard it was for any of you, including my husband. There are so many things about all of your stories I do not know. So many things about your pain I’ll never comprehend. There are consequences to starting over—for each of us. A firstborn and a youngest getting squeezed side-by-side into the middle. A middle starting over as a youngest. That kind of stuff matters. And it needs to be acknowledged.
But I know this, too. The story y’all have heard me tell and retell. The story I’ll keep on writing because God gave it, and He’s in it, and I believe it is OURS.
This is OUR SHALOM STORY.
He has chosen every single one of us—whether we recognize Him or not—to display His ridiculous love and mercy and restoration. Shalom is putting the pieces back together. It’s taking something broken and making something new of it. It’s creating something whole and holy where once there were fragments of mess.
He has made us new together in the best possible way.
This SHALOM FAMILY. We are his miracle handiwork. His masterpiece. His song.
We are a story worth CELEBRATING!!
WE ARE AMAZING!!
Here’s to our family’s BEST 10 YEARS.
I love you.
Mom
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