The other family

I really should be pumping right now, while I still have the chance, but I'm not because I just read a very encouraging post on Vanessa's blog. Now I"m in a thoughtful mood and I'm hoping that my breasts won't explode and that Ellie will stay asleep so I can right this.

If I had a picture of my family I would post it for all to see. Because I love them, I'm proud of them, and they are very special people to me. One reason, and maybe this is a big reason, they are so special to me is because they aren't my biological family at all.

This family loves to adopt, I think they may adopt more some day, I know that they have probably contemplated it a lot. It suits them. I've met few people who have been able to take someone else's child and love them like their own. Seriously, love them, unconditionally and enjoy them and all their quirks.

They've legally adopted one child, a little hispanic girl. The dad likes to call her his little chilupa, "chuck," Charleigh as I know her. But do you know that they've adopted other's as well, not children but people...but then children are people too...we'll just move on now.

I met this family when they only had one child, Mattie, such a darling. Wow I can't believe how much she has grown since then. Their other child, Calvin, was still being formed in the womb. I remember praying really hard when they came to be 'voted' on at my church. I wasn't a member yet of the church so I couldn't vote all I could do was pray. I knew that my church needed them...something drew me towards them, I knew even then that I would need them.
Thankfully, the church was smart at the time and called them to come. I sometimes wonder if the only reason why God led them there was so that they could help change the lives of the people that they would come to know.

I was 17 years old. I didn't feel like i belonged any where, sometimes i didn't even feel like I belonged at church, i seemed so different than my peers. I was so different than my family and my family was indifferent to me. I have a great relationship with most of my biological family now but I didn't then and I was so lonely and confused about life, but what 17 year old isn't.

I remember Robb's preaching, and his theology really shook my world. And yes, his theology really shakes my world now, but not as much as it did then. I struggled with God a lot that year. I grew up a lot that year.

I remember Vanessa's listening, she would just listen to me and welcome me even when I showed up at the most inconvienant times. I remember her hugging me...an odd thing for some to remember, but i didn't get many hugs then from anybody, her hugs always told me that everything would turn out for God's glory and my good in the end. I believed the "God's glory" part but i wasn't so sure about the "my good."

They invested a lot of their time and love into me. They included me in on things that are normally just reserved for family but they made me family. I think they are in the business of making people family...too bad they don't get paid to do it, they would be really wealthy if they did.

They've been "my people" for sometime now. Even if they haven't been able to physically come, they've been apart, in some way, of almost every major event of my life.

Vanessa took me to college, they recommended that I work at BaYouCa, graduation day they sent me flowers...I never got sent flowers before. They helped me move across country to Arkansas...and when my car broke down they turned around to get me. They helped me move into my first apartment, helped me buy my 2nd car. Vanessa helped me relax enough so that I could actually go out on my first date with my husband lol. Seriously, she did. I called her right before he was going to pick me up and she told me that everything would be fine and that we would have a blast...we totally did. Carl didn't have just one person to ask for my hand in marriage, he had two as Robb was really, and has been my overseerer in many ways. Vanessa helped me with my wedding dress, and was my Maytron of Honor...Robb did the ceremony. And even when little Eleanor was born the first thing I wanted to do Sunday morning was call them and let them know. I decided to spare them of a 1:00am phone call but Vanessa would have just loved me anyways.

Wow that's a lot...

I read Vanessa's blog about Robb this morning and I remember how encourging they have been to me over the last 9 years of my life...how much they really did adopt me and how much they are still adopting others like me.

I love them a lot, and things have changed...I've gone from being 17 years old to being a peer now. Their theology has changed too while mine still has it's roots in some of Robb's old preaching...lol...but I love them... I will always love them, they will always be my other family, and I miss them a lot and pray for them often because I know that God will and I have seen God do great things threw them.

I wish I could write more...however, the baby's started to cry and I'm now leaking...lol.