Being Brave

Recently I was rereading the book Number The Stars to my sons when I noticed a parallel between the story and adoption. For those who haven't read it, the story is set in Denmark during the Nazi occupation. There are two families: one Jewish and their best friends who are not. The plot revolves around the Christian family trying to help the Jewish family escape. The young girl who is the main character asks her adult relatives many questions and she is told  "It is easier to be brave if you don't know everything."

This resonated with me because the same is true of adoption. If we knew all the facts of a child before we committed, we might never commit. It is good to go into an adoption with your eyes wide open and knowing as much as you can, but at some point you have to walk by faith and take a blind leap. I remember when I first called Dr. Number 1 ( a referral from someone) to look over our "potential" son's medical file. She reviewed the file and then gave me every worst case scenario concerning what the boy might require both medically and psychologically.  While I appreciated her honesty about all the unknowns, I quickly decided she wasn't the right doctor for me. I wanted someone who saw the possibilities in the child.

Having adopted before and having gone to countless trainings, I knew the negative consequences of living in a foreign orphanage or foster care. The problem is that there were so many unknowns and we couldn't prepare for all of them. I didn't believe God wanted us to know everything before saying "yes" to the child. We knew he was parent-less, we knew he had been in the orphanage for 5 plus years and we knew his medical diagnosis. Beyond these facts, we had to be Brave and pray that God was leading us and he would provide everything we would need.

The story ends with the young girl helping her friends avoid detection because she could not give away what she didn't know.  And our story?  Our son is healthy without any signs of the original diagnosis let alone imagined ones. 

Be The One to be Brave.