Are we CRAZZZZYYY??

I'd like to think so. But only in the sense that 1 Corinthians 2:14 talks about...more on that in a sec. Let's rewind a few days. As many of you know, our family has hosted orphans over Christmas the past two years. It is an AMAZING experience...to get to show the love of Christ and the love of a family to a child or children who otherwise would never know it. Totally indescribable. But when it came around this year to sign up for hosting, we "obviously" decided to just be a support for others who were hosting and not do it ourselves. After all, we are in the midst of an international adoption which is requiring every extra penny that we have. Not to mention that, if everything goes perfectly, there is a chance that we could be traveling to Africa in January to get our baby. So it would be irresponsible to host...right?
And then it hit me. Or maybe He hit me. First of all, did I think that I needed a sign from God to bring an orphan into my home? What? The sky needed to split open or something? The Holy Spirit brought to my mind verse after verse where the Lord says, in essense, TAKE CARE OF ORPHANS!!!! No, Heather, you don't have to pray about it. Yes is ALWAYS the answer when it comes to the least of these. Sheesh, I'm ignorant sometimes. Then as that started to settle in, the obvious worries started popping in my head. Mainly money, money, money. I mean, we're begging and scraping and selling stuff (both our own stuff and products for a fundraiser) just to get through this adoption. Where are we gonna come up with another $2500? And then, that same Holy Spirit that John 14:26 says will teach me all things and even remind me of the things He's already taught me said, "5 loaves and 2 fish, Heather. Just offer whatcha got. I am God and can probably cover the rest." I'm not sure if He really said it that sarcastically, but He had every right too. So I mentioned it to Jono. He, of course, had the same money fears, but I assured him that I would contact the people at New Horizons and just offer what we have. If they didn't feel like it could work, at least we had been faithful.
Now we're into yesterday. I'm looking through the darn photo listing trying to figure out what kid to put on hold. Yes, it's excruciating. But I slowly came up with some criteria:
1)Scholarships! Since we have absolutely NO moolah in savings to help this procedure out, I narrowed it down to the kiddos with scholarships. Plus, a lot of the kids with scholarships have them because they are overlooked due to disabilities. Double whammy!
2)Young and/or special needs. This is because my girlies are such little mommies and, aside from the perfect match of Oksana and Vitya last year:(, they would feel much more like part of the family helping out if the child needed some helping out.
So I narrowed it down to two children...Bogdan, a 4 year old boy with some speech delay and Nadia who has cerebral palsy and is 6. I emailed New Horizons and shared EVERYTHING with them. Their advice was to go with Bogdan since he would be a little easier...especially since I already have little ones. I told them I'd think about it. I did not even feel right about saying, "Yeah, give me the easy kid.". But then, that little boy was such a cutie and so young. What a stinkin' struggle. I woke up early this morning begging God to make it clear which one we should host. I even said to Him, "I wish You would just pick for me. Don't make me pick.". But when 9:00 rolled around, He hadn't sent me a telegram, so I decided Jono would be more comfortable with a little boy. That was it. I couldn't think about it anymore and I put him on hold. Then, guess what? Twenty minutes later my phone rang and it was New Horizons. The message went something like this, "Hey Heather. We've had something come up. One of the special needs girls from Latvia just had her host family back out on her and all of the paperwork for Latvian kids is due today. If we don't get a new host family for her, she's gonna be pulled from the program. She's 4 years old and was born premature and suffers from a degree of fetal alcohol syndrome. Would you be interested?" Why am I always surprised when God answers prayers? Like I said, I'm quite ignorant sometimes. So God picked Liga for us. Check her out...Presh, huh? Now, back to 1 Corinthians 2:14. It says, "The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned." God is so good to give me what I need to hear in His word at just the right time. I looked up the word "folly" in the dictionary, and it means "a foolish action, practice, idea; absurdity. Does that not describe exactly what first pops in your mind when you think of us doing this? Hmmm...example of absurdity:
1)Adopting. In the words of one kind stranger, "It's just a lot of money to end up with a broken heart. Them orphan kids always end up breaking their parents' hearts." So sweet.
2)Adopting internationally AND inter-racially. Do you have any idea how many times I've heard, "Why not somewhere with white kids?"?
3)Hosting while broke and in the process of adopting.
And I won't even boggle your mind with all of the other absurd things God has rolling around in my mind. Let's just suffice it to say that someone looking at it with their natural eyes just can't accept it. It's a "foolish action and idea". But spiritually it makes sense. To God it makes sense.

If you would like to help get Liga to America this Christmas, click here to donate.

I know every time you hear from me it's asking for money, but all I know to do is throw it out there and see what God does.