You Bet!

It was so fun yesterday to see the FedEx truck pull up to our house! Not because he was delivering Christmas gifts and not because he was delivering anything "big." But, because he was delivering these: birth certificates for each family member and a copy of our marriage certificate. The last few documents we need to complete this phase of paperwork. So excited! It was even more exciting to greet him at the door and see snow pouring down! Sigh. Never thought I would be so excited to get something in the mail!

As I opened the envelopes and inspected each document to make sure it was indeed what I needed, I fought back tears. One more step: done. Then, as I read each line of our kids birth certificates I recalled their births, filling out the birth certificate forms, and signing each one... full of excitement and joy each time. Another sigh. Somewhere today living in Ethiopia is a little girl without a birth certificate. Without a family that she knows. I can't wait to hold her birth certificate form, see her last name as McKeehan, and sign it as her mother....full of excitement and joy.

The more paperwork I do the more I become aware of all that adoption is about. It isn't just bringing a new child into your home and caring for him/her like your own... It is about them being your own. It is about us, as the adopters, changing and gaining the greatest blessing. As others are talking to us about our adoption they often say, "Wow! I think what you are doing is great" or "It takes someone special to do what you all are doing." Each time I am caught in the moment not sure what to say. I am often drawn, in those moments, back to our adoption Sunday. Just a few weeks ago we had an adoption-emphasis Sunday. In a video about families in our church who have adopted one of the adoptive moms said, "There isn't anything extraordinary about us, but God has done something extraordinary in our lives." YES!!!! That's it! Ordinary Mark and Carrie (with one more batch of papers ready to go). Extraordinary God? YOU BET!