I thought that might get your attention. :)
Before you get too excited (or alarmed depending on your personal opinion), let me explain what that does and does not mean.
Chad and I feel totally content and thoroughly blessed by our family as is. Our kids are doing well, and life is almost easy once again. However, we also know that there are 143+ million children in the world who do not have a mommy or a daddy. That is NOT alright with us.
When we began Joshua's adoption there was no question in our minds that we would bring home a 3ish year old little boy from Ethiopia. Although we were fearful at times, we were very sure of God's very specific call.
We do not feel the same way at his time.
Right now, we have felt called to "wait in readiness." While we do not feel called in any specific direction, we do feel like we need to be prepared for whatever God has in store in our future. We are open to most anything - International, domestic, or foster.
We are also open to being "done." We do realize that we have 5 children. By most standards that is crazy enough! However, we love being parents more than anything else we do, and we have witnessed first hand the redemptive power that the love of a family has in the life of a child. For us, opening the door to another adoption is about being open to God's plan for the future of our family - period.
And YES! there are things about adopting again that FREAK US OUT! The possible costs, the risk of adopting a child that will have long-term difficulties, the amount of work involved in attachment, the fact that I am working and I would need to continue working are all examples of things we have worried over. (and we could continue. . . )
The truth is 35% of adoptive children struggle. Some of them struggle profoundly. HOWEVER 99.9% of kids that age out of the foster care system are in prison within 12 mo. of their "release" from the system. So, we could adopt a child that struggles. We could adopt a child that "never amounts to anything." Sometimes love and nurture and structure ARE NOT enough. We have chosen to carefully consider if we can measure our success in parenting based on our input rather than the success (output) of our child. Would we feel like parenting failures if our child struggles despite our best efforts?
In the end, our response is that if God open doors which lead us into another adoption, we KNOW the child is worth the risk.
We tell you all this, just so you know that anything is possible at the Dietrich house! This home study is good for the next 24 mo. In that time we may suddenly add to our family - sometimes domestic adoptions happen crazy fast. We may fall in love with the picture of a waiting child and begin the slow process of International adoption once again. We may inquire about children waiting to be adopted in the US foster system. We may do NOTHING!
We do not want to alarm you. We do not want to start "have you heard the Dietrich's are adopting again" rumors. We simply do not want anyone to feel blindsided if something were to happen quickly.
We do invite you to join us in praying that God will clearly direct our path. Pray that He will open and close doors in accordance to His will. Pray that He will prepare us for whatever may be to come.
A close friend who is aware of all that we are currently considering shared this verse with me yesterday. (Thanks for the verse & the prayers.)
"You need to perservere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised." Hebrews 10:36
(I am betting you are wondering what our kids say. They are thrilled. They are totally open to more siblings. They said, "It's about time." Yep, seriously. We have utterly amazing kids.)
To me this song sums it up. We want to live our life ready to follow wherever God leads.
