"He will be so blessed to be part of your family!" "You guys will bless his life so much!" These are the most common phrases we heard when we began our first adoption process. When we got married, we discussed our family plans. We knew we desired children, but we were not exactly sure what that would look like. I was diagnosed with severe endometriosis and poly cystic ovaries when I was 18 years old. I was never sure if I would be able to get pregnant, let alone sustain a pregnancy. We promised to always be open to the gift of adoption. Well, we achieved pregnancy five times in our marriage and have three living babies ranging from the ages of 13-9. In 2015, God started to call us to consider expanding our family, but we didn't think he was calling us to have one of our own, so we began praying about adoption.
Not the Destination...
In the marriage prep course, some couples try to tell us that our culture is not opposed to babies. And I think to myself, “Oh yea, then why do I get all the weird stares with a pregnant belly and 3 small kids in tow? It’s a regular thing for cashiers and strangers to tell me they don’t know how I do it.”
In Amoris Laetitia Pope Francis, in the very beautiful first section of Chapter 4 says:
“We encounter problems whenever we think that relationships or people ought to be perfect, or when we put ourselves at the center and expect things to turn out our way.
Last week I said I would try and bring some practical insights to various extracts from the apostolic exhortation, Amoris Laetitia.
The above is taken from the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love – On Love in the Family) paragraph 314.
