Addressing the Positive :)

     "What a wonderful thing you're doing!"

     "You are such incredible people."

     "That little boy is so lucky."

As of late, we have received many comments like those listed above.  While I am sure there are also very negative comments that we have not heard, and we have heard a few, I feel the need to address the positive ones.  Understandably, friends and family are being encouraging and loving in these sweet thoughts, but I am afraid you are disillusioned. 

WE ARE UN-INCREDIBLE, UN-WONDERFUL PEOPLE!!

I'm not shouting, just capitalizing for emphasis.  :)  We are not amazing parents, we are not especially sacrificial, we fail ALL THE TIME!  I admit that I constantly beat myself up over the ridiculous reoccurrences in my defective human state.  The effort to be better for Christ, one another, our children, and other humans beings is a constant battle we wage with the enemy.  But, we are children of God, and He has an undeserving grace that forgives our faults.  We love our children fiercely, but we are constantly making mistakes.  One of our prayers for our children is that they are NOT like us.  We pray they will be far greater servants for God than we have ever attempted to be.  Dear God, we beg you to let them rise above our incompetencies and spread your love through this world like fire!!

I think about the story of Moses and Pharoah.  Do you know this one?  If not, check out Exodus in the Bible, beginning in 10:1.  The Bible tells us that God "hardened" Pharoah's heart multiple times.  For the will of God that is greater than any of us can comprehend, it was necessary for Pharoah's heart to say "no". 

If the Hudson story happened to be written in the Bible, we believe it would say that God "softened" our hearts.  He went inside and overrode our inability to say "yes".  To accomplish His great will, He annulled our selfish and lazy ways and melded our hearts to deliver His love.

We are not incredible.  We are not wonderful . . . but God is!!!

As for our dear little Oliver, luck has nothing to do with his story.  (Note:  We absolutely respect that comments about him being lucky are made with the purest of intent.)  His birthfamily took care of him until he was approximately one year old, and we can only speculate the reasoning behind why they felt they could not care for him as he deserved.  Maybe they were uneducated about his special need and imagined they could not conquer the necessities of his care.  Maybe they didn't have financial resources.  Maybe they were spooked by cultural myths that led them to believe there was something wrong with this beautiful baby because his eyes were blue instead of brown.  We could continue to hypothesize about their decision, but in any case, we cannot call it "luck" that he was separated from them.  Just under a year after being in his first orphanage, he was placed at Bethel, an environment for visually impaired children.  We cannot categorize this as "luck", but with absolute certainty we assert that it is a blessing.  They fill his life with love every single day, and we are so grateful.

And us - who are we to deserve to care for any of the children we have, Oliver included?  The blessing is all ours, dear friends.  The glory and honor in adoption goes to God, as He tends to the millions of orphans lost in this world by "softening" hearts like ours. 

The next time it crosses your minds that we are doing something great, send the praise upward.  We appreciate your kind and gracious words, but we do not deserve them.  Give our great God all the credit!