And Baby Makes Seven... Happy Father's Day!

By Paul & Elizabeth Hogsten

"What led you to consider adoption?"

This is a question that friends, family and complete strangers have asked us over the last year since we began the process of bringing Ana into our family. People ask us this because Ana will be our fifth child, but our first adoption. Elizabeth (20) and Stephen (17) are bright and successful young people. Grace (3 1/2) and Jack (2) are adorable and loving preschoolers. So back to the question, "What led you to consider adoption?"

A year ago we would have said, it was that we love having and raising children, but we don't love pregnancy... yet over the last year, our answer has expanded. The more we prayed and exposed ourselves to adoptive families and information about children in the United States and around the world who need families, the more we felt that God's best for us and our family was to give us our next child through adoption. And now, the most compelling answer (and also the most adorable answer) is our 9-month old daughter, Ana, waiting for us in Guatemala. She is a precious life created by God to do His good work in the world (Ephesians 2:10). She is a real person to us, not a statistic. We have held her, fed her, comforted her, and prayed for her. God has placed her in our hearts as our daughter, even though we are still waiting for the day we can bring her home to Towson.

At the beginning of this process we asked ourselves several challenging questions about what it might be like to bond with her, to help her deal with feelings of loss related to her birth family, and to help her find her place in our family. We don't have all the answers yet. As Christians, God has promised to walk with us through life (Matthew 28:20) and give us wisdom when we ask (James 1:5). As parents, we need to rely on His promises whether our children are infants or teenagers, biological or adopted, developmentally on target or challenged in some way. He promises grace for the moment, and that is all we need (2 Corinthians 12:9).

With pregnancy, we lived with morning sickness, constant fatigue, C-section recovery, and anxiety over whether the baby would be healthy. With adoption, we have lived with a mound of paperwork, fingerprinting, home inspection, juggling our finances and anxiety over when or if she would come home. What have we found? There have been tears with each child, but for each of our children... it has been worth it all!

So here we are on Father's Day, grateful to God for the four children we have at home, waiting for Ana to come home, and wondering if God knows of yet another precious life that He wants to add to our family (Psalm 139:15-16).

For information on Central's Adoptive Family Ministry, contact Becky Tacelosky.