Open doors, permanent walls

Marcel attempted to explain to my dad what our family is like. His explanation went something like this:

    "Grampy, our family is kinda like a house that always has open doors. The Pierres are the walls, so we're permanent. No matter what, we will always be family, because we're forever family. But we always have our doors open, that way people who need to barrow a family for a little while can come and make our home their family while they need us."

   I think this is such a great analogy for what we want our family to be. Our children have lived here for 2 and a half years now and have seen many people "join" our family for periods of time. We've had older single people who have shared our table and been "family" to them and foster kids spend weekends with us. There is a steady flow of neighborhood kids coming in and out and half their "aunts and uncles" are in no way related to Vermon or myself (except through Christ!). We've had teenagers live with us, children needing family spend weekends or weeks with us. We truly have a home with open doors. (in a future post I'll write why this is!)

   Our kids love this about our life and Marcel often tells me how fun it is to have so many people who are "like" brothers, sisters, grandpas, aunts, and uncles. But when there is a change, it is challenging for our kids. When a temporary friend moves out of our house (or off our couch), or a kid we provided respite care for a few days goes home... Marcel and Mya both talk about how sad it makes them and how hard it is. But I am always amazed and proud of how their little hearts process through their feelings and come to the conclusion that we are blessed to be able to be family to people who need families, even if it is for a short period of time!

    One thing that is on my mind a lot with our upcoming new baby is how it will affect our kids to have babies living with us who we potentially won't be able to adopt. We have no way of knowing if we will foster 1 or 10 babies before we can adopt, but we know we want to love each one as though it were our own. Many people have already begun to talk about how challenging that will be and no doubt it will be very painful!

    I am praying constantly that God would bring us a baby who will need a forever home, but I also know that although my heart has many plans, it is the Lord's purposes that will prevail (proverbs 19:21). I know that if God plans for us to have ten babies, it is because he planned for us to adopt that tenth baby before the baby was ever knit together in her mother's womb. I know that each child we have in our home we will have because God has ordained for us to cross paths with family members and case workers that we never would have crossed paths with. I know that each baby we have, even if it is for days, is because we are to love and nurture and care for them as though they were our own.

So loss will be hard, loss will be painful, but as a mother, what worries me the most is the loss and pain my kids will go through. I have begun to prepare them that we do not know if this baby will be in our forever family, but that God has called us to love her. Mya and I have been talking a lot about what it means to "suffer for Christ" and how this is a suffering that will be hard, but will bring such blessing because we will be able to love a baby who needs love desperately. I know I cannot shelter my children from difficulty or pain and so I talk with them and teach them how to "count it all joy" when trials come, and how we can truly "rejoice in our sufferings."