Just the FAQs, ma'am
The number one question I'm asked (besides, "Where'd you get that super-awesome 15-passenger van and where can I get one just like it?") is "How do you do it?"
This is the answer: I don't know.
I'm not just being snarky. I really don't know. What I DO know is that God helps me, and my family helps me, and my friends help me, and somehow, we just go from Monday to Tuesday to Wednesday, just like an average-size family.
Here are some answers to other popular questions. Since you're reading this, I know you're smart, and I bet you can guess at most of the questions. See? It's a game! Kind of like Jeopardy!
(I will note that some of them amuse me, and some annoy me. Greatly. But it appears that because I have a large, noticeable family, people assume that I want to share every detail about my life in the checkout line at the grocery store.)
- No, we didn't plan it. We thought we'd have three. But "number three" was twins and then our hands were maxed out anyway, so what was one more?
- Sufficient for our needs.
- Four biological, 3 from China, 3 from Haiti, and 2 from Ethiopia, but I assure you they are all very much "ours." (And please don't ask which ones are "ours" in front of our kids. Pretty please? Can you imagine being the kid in the aforementioned grocery checkout left wondering if he/she counts as ours?) One of our children is deaf and uses cochlear implants, and another has albinism and is legally blind.
- We adopted because we wanted more children, and although we certainly acknowledge God's hand in the process and give Him thanks for our amazing family, James 1:27 does not sum up our motives. We believe very strongly that a couple needs quite a bit more than a "calling" or pity to prepare them for international adoption/older child adoption. Children deserve to be selfishly wanted, not "taken in" like a stray animal.
- Read, study, talk to other adoptive families, pray. If you think you still want to do it, I will help in every way I can!
- I think two-parent families are the ideal, but yay for all the wonderful single/gay/older/otherwise nontraditional adoptive parents out there.
- 3-4 loads a day, but because it's part of my routine, my laundry is done by afternoon each day.
- Probably less than you do, because I am the queen of couponing. I can feed my family pretty well for about $200 a week. Remember, I like to cook. And I'm not talking Hamburger Helper.
- Not a lot of it, no, but we actually go out on a date once a week. He likes to bike and exercise. I like to dance and run. We make time for the important things.
- Yes, you could, if you really wanted to.
- I'm glad it's me and not you, too.
- Yes, they're full. And you win a special award for being the one millionth person to tell me so.
- Roll with the punches, cut corners where you have to, and find joy in the journey.
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| And yeah, this is about as good as our family pictures get |
