So, why are you adopting?

I have been asked this question.....I have to write a letter stating why we want to adopt for our international paperwork.....and let's face it - you want to know, right?

I will give you some history:

Eric and I had college roomates who married each other.  A few years after college our only communication with them was Christmas Cards every year with an update of our lives....I'm not 100% sure how it happened but we started talking again and found out they were adopting from Ethiopia.  We went to greet them at the airport when they arrived home with their baby boy in January 2010.  Eric asked me that night...."Would you do that?"

Then the Haiti earthquake happened....I watched (as did everyone) and was honestly crying and was heartbroken not only by the sheer devastation but by these beautiful children who had lost their parents...It was gut-wrenching but after a while I pushed it aside (hey, I am just being honest here - we all know life takes over)

Months later we reconnected with some other friends of ours from TN - well when I say reconnected I mean another friend referred their blog which you can see here and I privately stalked it for months.  I didn't tell anyone.  I didn't make a comment.  I just read it.  I watched their journey.  I was inspired by it. 

During that time - I saw this....(prepare yourselves)

Yeah.....look at it again....seriously.....

The short bit of information behind the picture is that the photographer that took this picture left this lil' girl....HE LEFT HER!  This little human is searching for food and the vulture is just waiting for her to die so that he can eat.  No one knows what happened to her, but you can guess that it wasn't daffodils and roses....I was having a conversation with a very close friend and we both made the statement "How could he have left her?" In that conversation I realized I have left countless children.....I have been on the floor crying for them.  I have had a heart for them....but not long after I turned the station or flipped the page that I was reading it was gone....gone from my mind....much like they never existed.....but the very truth is that they do exist and I REFUSE to sit idly by any longer.  

I cannot save the world but I can save a beautiful child and welcome her into my home as my own.  I have a house full of more 'stuff' than I need.  I have a pantry full of food.  I have clothes.  There are doctors readily available and all I have to do is stop worrying - 'What will people think? Does this mean that I won't have my 401(k) anymore? (Okay, it's Eric's but you get the drift)  What about my two blond hair/blue-eyed kids? Does this mean that I have to give up Disney World?, etc. etc'  Seriously......I can no longer be that person.  I dont want to be that person.  I want to be a person that is real in my faith.  I want to be a person that no longer needs the things of the world.....(I am still fighting the wants of the world- let's face it- that may take a while)

So, to answer the question why is the Runner Family adopting? - we just can't leave her there any longer.