My sister

For the record, here in front of everyone, I adore my sister, Lisa. She is awesome and I'm not sure she will ever really know how much I look up to her, admire her, respect her and, yes, envy her. So when I shared about my adoption and I could tell she was unsettled about it, that was hard.

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When we finally had the chance to talk, after I was already into the process of things, I was able to hear Lisa's questions and not feel threatened or attacked by them. Her primary question was this: God has not given you a husband. True. Can't argue with that. :-) Do you think that by adopting without a husband you are forcing God's will toward what you want rather than waiting on Him? Good question. And we had a great conversation about it, although I can't now remember the specifics of everything we discussed. Ha. But here is what I think now and I've written about this before.

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I believe God has not made us robots. He has given us free will, a mind, and allows us real choice. I also think that the belief behind Lisa's question can lead to a slippery slope that she doesn't intend like this: if you believe God is going to heal you, why do you see the doctor? Or, if you're not able to get pregnant, why are you using fertility drugs? Or, why are you using birth control? Or, why are you doing on-line dating when God could bring "the man" to your door? That thinking leads to a passive Christian life of waiting for things to happen to you rather than fully embracing faith-filled freedom in Christ. That's not the life I want to live. Further, God commands us to care for widows and orphans, and I'm all about that!

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Don't get me wrong. I think there is an opposite slippery slope to be heeded and it looks like this: as long as it isn't prohibited in scripture, I can do whatever I want. So I'm going to adopt ten kids on my own and ignore any Godly wisdom that might be shared with me. Um, danger danger!! I think what made my conversation with Lisa so beautiful and the reason why the specifics of it don't matter is that we got to hear each other's heart. I heard her pain over my pain of not having the spouse I desired, and her wisdom about waiting on the Lord. And she heard me sharing that the adoption option was not a flippant decision on my part to fill some kind of purported void. But was a call and spirit led and God ordained and carefully planned. Something she could stand behind. So by the time the call was over, I think she was on board.

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Now, she's even more on board, I think, and oh how Seth loves his Aunt eee-sah!!! So does his mama. :-)