​Why did you decide to adopt?  That's probably the most common question I get when talking to people about our adoption.  Everyone from those who "need to know", with good reason - i.e. the Ethiopian government - to strangers and well wishers wants to know, why?

I understand the curiosity.  It's not every day you fly to Africa and come back with a child.  And not everyone skips the "natural process" and jumps straight to the headache-inducing privacy-invading cost-prohibitive pile of paperwork that comes with this territory.  Of course, we're not everyone.

The easy answer to the why question, and the one I usually rely on, is, "It's just something we've always wanted to do."  It usually satisfies the asker, too.

But then, if I'm honest, that's not entirely honest.

I mean, I wasn't born with some ingrained drive to find orphaned kids and raise them as my own.  I wasn't playing on the playground as a 2nd grader and asking my mom if we could bring all the kids home to be my brothers and sisters.  Even two years ago, before we started this process, I wasn't totally sure that yep, this is the plan.  If I'm really honest, which is kind of the point here, I've even wondered about it once or twice along the way.

Today our pastor made a simple point about learning to desire relationship with God, and his point holds true for much of life.  He said, "Desires are learned."



Why did I decide to adopt?  I learned to want it.  Now let's not give me too much credit - I didn't set out to.  I didn't decide one day that this was my destiny and I better start focusing in on it.  Perhaps a better way to say it is that God taught me to want it.



Something get's into your heart when you spend time with God.  Something of you begins to meld into him and you begin to want what he wants.  And he wants to care for orphans and widows (James 1:27).  Something even more powerful happens when you go with Him across the globe, and let Him show you who they are, where they are, how they live.  It's something of a "ghost of Christmas-present" experience to laugh your heart out while you run and play with the poorest and happiest kids in the world.  Only they can see you and touch you, and you can touch them and that's a part of your heart they'll keep forever.

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So when I say adopting is something I've always wanted to do, I guess that's not entirely true.  More accurately, I ask only, how could I not?

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What are you learning to want?

Benj