Gracious Advocacy and The Fuzzy Grail

I have decided that given my tendency toward fixation, writing something that is potentially controversial on my blog (even if it is my blog) may not be a good idea. Doing so appears to cause me to lose sleep tossing and turning thinking about who in Internetland now thinks I'm a jerk while also mandating that I spend WAY too much time checking back to see if there are any new comments. I didn't realize "That Friend" was going to stir up so many strong opinions. Just so that I am clear, here is a Cliff Notes version of what I was trying to convey this week. I believe that there is an orphan crisis in the world right now and that that isn't right. Yes, we can debate some of the global statistics on orphans, but we can't debate that there are far too many children throughout the globe who lack the love and protection of a permanent family. I believe that God cares deeply about the plight of orphans. Toward that end, I believe that there are many ways to meet the needs of orphans including prayer, sponsorship and adoption. I also believe that many Christians could and should do much more to defend and care for the world's orphaned children. In light of that, I think more Christians need to seriously consider how adoption could/should fit into their larger plans for family, which may or may not include birth children. I think all Christians who have the means and the desire for children should ask themselves "Why NOT bring an adopted child into our family?" and then prayerfully consider the answer to that question. Yes, it's fair to say that adoption can be seen as a "calling" but so is "love one another" and we are all called to do that. I want to see more of my fellow believers seriously explore the possibility of "love one another through adoption".
Enough said. I hope that was somehow conveyed.

This recent experience with attempting to articulate my feelings about adoption has caused me to think about what passionate advocacy looks like within the Body of Christ. I had no idea 10 years ago that adoption would become something that would consume my life. As a newlywed, I had no plans to take on orphan care on an advocacy level. A decade ago, the idea of even having children at all was WAY off my radar. I certainly wasn't thinking about becoming "That Friend, The Adoption Mom" And yet, this is now my life and it appears that adoption is the cause for which I was uniquely created to speak out. It fits my heart. It is my driving passion as I try to live out my faith in Christ practically in a hurting world. What gets challenging is trying to figure out how to fuse together passion and grace. I've always been really good at passion. Being gracious has been never my strong suit. "Just be sweet," I tell my girls. Sadly, that is easier said than done for me. My mother-in-law oozes graciousness in everything she does. Sometimes, I can't squeeze out more than maybe a drop or two, even if I'm trying really hard. And when issues of injustice are involved - forget about it. What does gracious advocacy look like? Is there such a thing? How does one marry the passion to speak up for the voiceless and make noise in such a way within one's faith community that people may feel convicted (hopefully convicted to action) with the ability to present ideas in a way that is permeated with grace and not judgment? Practically speaking, judgment isn't going to gain you any followers. Anyone remember that quote about catching flies with honey over vinegar? However, I'm not ok with not saying anything just so that people won't think I think I'm better than they are. Social agitators have changed the world for the better by being noisy enough to shake people from their complacency. My question is what does a social agitator look like today within The Church. How does she tell her story and get her message across to those who might "get it" if somehow empowered with the right information at the right time in God's plan? I hope that much like I have grown into motherhood I will grow into gracious advocacy. I will not be silent. I know that. But, I also probably shouldn't be so edgy sometimes either. I need to find that place in between. That place called "speak the truth in love".

On a lighter note, given that things have been a bit "heavy" around here lately, the girls recently got their first pairs of slippers and they could not be more thrilled. For some reason, Big Bear decided that she just HAD to have a pair of slippers. The problem is that slippers are out of stock EVERYWHERE where we live. I spent an afternoon lugging the girls from one discount retailer to another in pursuit of our "fuzzy grail" only to be told by a less-than-energetic teenager working at Targer that they only carry slippers at Christmas time. To which my it's-way-past-my-nap 3 year old promptly burst into tears. Enter Zappos.com. I love this site, especially since you get free overnight delivery and they have a zillion shoes, and thankfully, slippers. After nap, Junia picked out a pair online and we ordered them. She jumped up and down when her slippers from "the 'puter" showed up at our door 24 hours later. They both wear them ALL the time now. They want to wear them everywhere so we have to continually remind them that slippers are only worn in the house. Pretty darn cute - but what else is new. In other news, we are actually in process on working with Gladney to gather information for another possible adoption. I guess that is a step forward. We are currently trying to learn all we can about birth order as it relates to adoption. We have some concerns that our happy little life that we've finally got simmering nicely after a year of transition might boil right over if Big Bear were moved into a Second Fiddle spot. We'll see where all of this leads us.