When God calls you blessed.....

Since I can remember, I have had the heart to adopt. As a young girl, I always wanted a LOT of kids but now, my definition of a lot is a little less.

When I was in junior high, my ideal family was four biological children and three adopted children (possibly all boys since in theory, I can't biologically produce boys). The question would always arise from my peers "What if you don't have four children?" Without hesitation, I would always answer, "Then I'll adopt seven!" I don't know where that answer came from or how that answer came about because to this day, I don't know the origin nor do I have a significant story behind the number seven (being that my favorite number is eight).

What I do know about the number seven, which I will teach Tamia when we study the Bible together is that the number seven represents completion. When God created heaven and earth, He saw that it was good and on the seventh day he rested Gen 2:1&2. I can only believe that for my own family, the number seven will be our number of completion (unless the Lord says different) since it was so etched in my mind as a young child.

I said that to say, since I've always had the heart and mind to adopt, I find it very interesting that the first child to enter my life and home permanently is neither a biological child nor an orphan but my very own sister. The Lord that I serve is just too BIG, too GOOD, and too AMAZING for any adjective that the human vocabulary can explain. Who but Him could orchestrate my life in such a way that such a blessing would come in this form?!

I have yet to meet the man that the Lord has created for me to have those biological/adopt children with, yet the Lord is so faithful that He lovingly gave me a child to raise from nearly birth through adulthood that I neither had to conceive nor experience the "what ifs" that are common in adoption situations.

I am in no way bragging but instead, testifying to the goodness of God. He knows why He does things, allows certain things to happen, and causes certain things to be the way they are. I find it easiest to let Him take the lead while I take the background (lyrics cleverly used by Christian artist Lecrae).

What I also know is that to whom much is given, much is required and the blessing that I have been given is a huge responsibility. One that I do not take lightly! In life we are intrusted with things that God intrusts specifically to us. To some, that comes in the form of wealth, to others it's businesses, and to the rare CALLED of us, it's in the form of another life. What you do with that "thing" (for lack of a more appropriate term), you have to give account for just like the parable in the Bible of the talent Luke 19.

With this little life that will soon enter my life indefinitely, I'm preparing my mind to be a sister but more, a parent but more, and a friend but more! It is my prayer that God gives me the strength and the wisdom to care for and raise this little person the right way and grant me the patience and knowledge that I need to live and know how to separate these three very distinct relationships.

I thank God for the blessing that is her because I know that the saying is true.....

"When God calls you blessed, you are blessed indeed!"