Call Me Crazy

I was working sign-ups for fall sports tonight so I was set up at a table in the lobby of a building we use. It happened that another group had rented out part of the area tonight as well.  This group was meeting about foster care.  While the adults met in a separate room the children were playing in the gym which happened to be beside us.

A little girl came out and asked if we did cheerleading - she was adorable, probably around 3 with a cute ponytail, great smile, and the sweetest little voice.  I told her "why yes we do - do you want to be a cheerleader?".  Her response - "I really want to be a cheerleader can I have the pom poms?".  She cracked me up.  She continued to come out to ask me if she could "pretty please" get some pom poms.  Before I realized why she was there I caught myself about to tell her to ask her parents to sign her up and she could get some.  Then I realized - this little girl doesn't have parents.  None of those children in that gym who were running around, laughing, chasing each other and smiling had parents.  How unfair is that?

Now I know that those wonderful people on the other side of the building were likely in there discussing how they were going to care for those precious little ones in the gym and I hope and pray they do.  But for an instant I thought - we have enough love in our hearts and home for a child like her.  I wanted to grab her up and give her a big hug and tell her everything was going to be okay.

You may be thinking why in the world would someone so blessed with 4 amazing babies feel the need to add another?  Well I guess because I just couldn't stand the thought of a child not having parents or knowing what it feels like to be loved unconditionally.  I also think in the back of my mind I always considered it was an option for us.  Most of you probably know but we didn't always realize how blessed we would be.  We had many problems trying to start a family and went through years of fertility treatments and disappointment.  We were at the point of accepting we would probably not have biological children and decided we would adopt (even started the paperwork).  That is when we got our first blessing - Payton :)  After that we knew we wanted a large family and once again turned to fertility treatments - this time it was better and along came our second blessing - Cole.  The true blessings are Graham and Lilah Grace who we were able to have all on our own!  Each of them a precious gift that we will never take for granted!

So as I looked across the table at those cute brown eyes and little smile I thought to myself maybe we still could.  Of course when I relayed this story to Jay and told him my tiny little thought his reaction was enough to say not right now and I am a bit crazy :)