The spice of life....

The other day in my 5th grade class, one of the students happened to ask about my sons ethnic heritage. Of course, being 5th graders, the question came out more along the lines of, "What is he?" I've long since learned to bite my tongue and not blurt out 'Human, what are you?" because I know they simply want to know what his ethnic heritage is. "My son," I replied, "is Chinese, Korean, Caucasian, Filipino." To which one of my sweet kids blurted out, "Jalapeno? Did you say he was jalapeno?!?"

Now, not only is that funny when you hear it, but it struck that 'Random thought' nerve in me when I realized my son has definitely brought spice into our lives.

Almost eleven years ago, we decided that we wanted to adopt again. (For those who haven't read the story of our first adoption, check out God made.) Now our daughter was adamant that she wanted a baby sister. We decided to leave it up to God. We filed the papers and began the wait. Of course we were anything but idle during the wait, we were after all chasing around a two year old! This time, however, the wait seemed to take forever! After almost a year of waiting, I began to wonder if perhaps God didn't want us to adopt again. Perhaps I had forced the issue. We were so blessed with our daughter, maybe I was being selfish wanting a second child. And still, we waited.

Then the call came. There was a baby boy whose birth mother had chosen us. He was 3 weeks old and if we were willing, we could pick him up the next day. The excitement must have carried us, because in 22 hours, we put up a Christmas tree, put up a crib, told our daughter that we were getting a baby boy not a baby girl, bought formula, clothes, etc. and drove 4 hours to meet our new son. He was the most beautiful little boy I'd ever laid eyes on. His jet black hair and big brown eyes melted me...and so did his beautiful birth mom. She was such a gift to meet. I think of her and her parent each time I look at my son's big loopy curls and freckled nose.

She asked us to keep a family name that she had given him. Of course we said yes. We'd already chosen his first name based on the fact that we'd never met a kid with that name who wasn't a great kid, (teachers - you'll understand that!) His middle name was to be my maiden name. So we decided to add her family name after my maiden name. That is, until I called my mother to tell her she had a grandson. When I told her his name, she said I should change it to where the name the birthmother had given him was first. All I could ask was "Why?" "Because," she said, "when you put that name first, his whole name is your grandfather's name."

Now that may be confusing, but in essence, by adding her family name to the two we'd chosen, we were naming our son with my grandfather's name. For me, this was a confirmation from God that not only were we to adopt again, but that we were to adopt THIS child. And believe me, with him, we've needed that at times! Life with our son is never dull! There was the time he went running up and down the hall with a towel tied around his neck jumping and running, jumping and running. Finally, he leaned exhausted on the door frame and said "Daddy, I'm having trouble flying! I keep on landing!" There was the time he learned to write his name and wrote it on a name tag at the Bethany Picnic. When he went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, he sighed, "Oh no! I did it again! I wrote my name backwards!" Then there was the time he decided to run away from home - without evem a diaper on...don't worry, he only got as far as the door. Oh, life has definitely been full of spice since he came along.

I heard in a Bible study this week that when something that comes so naturally to others doesn't come naturally to you, then you are a candidate for the supernatural! It is so humbling to think that God looked down at our family and heard our cries and gave us not one, but two beautiful children. God does hear the prayers of His children, and though the answer may seem long in coming...it is coming.

My son once said, "I wish I'd been born in your tummy." All I could say was, "I wish so too, but God had other plans. He put our family together for a purpose. We needed to have two children just like you, and the only way for that to happen was for him to have you grow in another mommy's tummy and in my heart. We are a forever family, put together by God. If that's not spice in life, I don't know what is.