Don't get in the way!

The kids and I were talking about 30 years down the road. Papa would be 100 years old. They would be 35 and 37, about Daddy and I's age. And they would probably have a couple of kids like us now.

Hannah said, "I want to have 18 children, adopted."

My response was a sort of, but not so much a ('now, now, you are such a silly girl'), as I told her about the Duggar family with their show 18 Kids and Counting.  That was that.

A few hours later, through twitter I followed a trail via myadoptionstory.com and found Katie's story. She is 21 years-old and is a mother to 14 children in Uganda. Now reading about a 21 year-old with 14 adopted children is amazing. But once I read about her faith, I am speechless and at the brink of tears. Once I watch the video the dam breaks and Graham comforts me as I palm away handfuls of tears.

And this is me, while I am being overwhelmed with emotion, I'm asking myself: "What is it about this story, about Katie that moves me so much?"

I couldn't go to bed with a "now that was a good cry." This is a moment in time that I will look back on and recognize as something significant. For now, I will conclude with what I think has moved me:

I am amazed at her utter simple faith. God whispers and she listens. She fears not, she extends God's love. She doesn't ask the "but..." "what if..." She just does it.

I remember where I was when I was 16. I was lost. That's my story. But at 21, saved by Jesus, I was thinking about boys, not orphans.

To me, even adopting ONE child is a hugely, insurmountable calling that has to be ordained by God. And here is a 21 year-old, with 14 of them! Clearly she has been called. But clearly she has obeyed!

I do not attempt to idealize her life. But she's 21 and her life is evidenced that she has overcome the obstacles!

Then I think of Hannah's dream, which she has repeated to me often, of adopting 18 children... it's possible.  Psalm 8:2 says that God has "ordained praise from the lips of children and infants." Who am I to stand in the way?!

Tomorrow, I will show her Katie's story. And I will trust God to give me faith when it comes time to let go of my little girl to somewhere far away to be the mother to 18 children.