Did you know that when you adopt, the number of children you have increases, too?
Yep. Cat’s out of the bag. Hope I didn’t ruin it for you.
But that’s what tends to happen when you adopt. You wind up with more kids.
Which leads to a bigger family.
One of the most common comments I get from people is, “I don’t know how you do it. I can’t even handle the (insert number < 4) I’ve got!”
I get it.
I’m sure it looks pretty comical to see the crazy blond lady, flailing around in public with four young children who are circling her like a totem pole.
All talking at once, of course.
All talking very loudly…of course.
I used to be one of those people.
I used to watch moms who had three or more children and think…”I could never do that. I don’t even really want to do that.”
I would thus declare myself the winner (in my head), and move on. (I’ve told you before how much I like to win.)
I realize now that four children is really not that many. I mean, I can’t even make a basketball team out of ‘em, for pete’s sake!
And in Adoption Land, four kiddos is small potatoes. Not that it’s a competition…good grief. But fo reals…I’ve got some pretty cool friends who are juggling WAY more peeps than I am. (Stef, Amie, Sonia, Love…yeah, I’m pointing my fingers at you’s guys)
And just to show me how small potatoes I really am, a family came into church on Sunday (my parent’s church) and took up 3 1/2 rows right in front of me.That would be because they have 21 kids…12 of whom are adopted. Most with some serious special needs.
Didn’t look like the parents were even batting an eye. Or sweaty.
How could this be?
I would be super sweaty.
So it appears that I now have come full circle.
Once again, I look at families who have more than I have and think, “Yikes…I don’t know if I could do that.”
The difference now, however, is that I think (super-secretly to myself), “But perhaps I would like to do that.”
So lemme just spell out this mathematical equation for your convenience. Don’t worry mathematicians…I will show my work.
Family + Adoption = Bigger Family
Family + 2(Adoption) = Even Bigger Family
Family + 3(Adoption)2 = Ginormous Family
You get the picture. (that last one was a good one, I thought)
The good news is that whether or not our family gets any bigger is not up to me anyway. I think I’ll leave the higher math for the Lord.
He’s much smarter than I am.
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