An Open Book?

Have you ever met someone who did not mind sharing all of there personal information with you?  If you have a Facebook account, then you have definitely met those people (and maybe you are those people).  If you are, thank you for the entertainment you provide:-).  Well, in case you do not know us, we are not those people.  I don't know if its just my personality or if it is the fact that I grew up as a Pastor's kid, but I am normally not very comfortable sharing personal information with others.  Now that I am a pastor, it is very difficult for me and my family to open up and share our lives with others.  Our walls do not come down easily.  

And then we were led to adopt!  And everything has changed.  In the past three months, we have been forced to open our lives up like never before.  We have been asked questions about our family...questions about our marriage...questions about health...questions about our finances...questions about our parenting philosophy...questions about our spiritual beliefs...questions about the type of child we desire...and questions about how we will love and care for a child that is not biologically ours.  And in answering these questions, we have been forced to let total strangers into very private areas of our life.  If not for the calling of God over our lives and the grace of God in our lives, it would have been easy for us run away from all of the prying and run back to a place of privacy and security. 

Yet, retreating is no longer an option for us!  For we know that there is a little boy in India, who we have never met, yet our hearts are filled with love for him and our hearts ache at the thought of being separated from him.  We have no idea whether he has even been born, yet he is growing in our hearts and is running through our minds in ways that are impossible for us to even explain.  As we pray for him and as our hearts ache for him, we know that we must be able to do whatever it takes to bring him home.  Even if it means putting ourselves (and our business) out there for the world to see.  We will do whatever it takes!

With that said, the Strickland family is inviting you into our lives - and into our adoption journey.  Not only do we want people to follow our story (so that God may be glorified in it all); we need people who will stand behind us and walk beside us every step of the way. We know that God has called us to do what is impossible for us, yet we are very thankful that all things are very possible for Him.  I pray that our lives and our story will not become burdensome to you, but will be a blessing and a reminder of the goodness and grace of God to us all! #ADOPTIONISREDEMPTION