What is the Cost?

July 18, 2010

Though it has been a somewhat long week because of working so much, Lara and I decided to have the older girls over to watch part 2 of the Anne of Green Gables Series which I had brought from the States. After discovering that we still could not get our DVD player to work with the tv, we resorted to putting the movie on Lara's computer yet again. One of the purposes of having the girls over was so that they could watch the movie for real without the voices of ten other girls overriding the sound. As it turned out hearing the movie was still difficult, but I know that they enjoyed the opportunity to get out of the house, laugh and be silly, and to try some new foods.

In the minutes before I took them back to La Casa, they offered to live with me when Lara returns to the USA at the end of this month. They, of course, do not want me to be lonely and so they said that I can be their "adoptive mom." My inner thought was, well, it would be nice to give them a chance to live in a smaller home and get more individual attention, but I quickly thought of the responsibility of getting them to school at 6:30AM and all the details that would go along with being an adoptive mom. There are many sacrifices to be made in the life of a mother. And I tend to forget about them when I casually think about wanting to take in children. Jesus' call to die to oneself is, in my opinion, exemplified in the life of many a mother as they put their needs last and invest in the lives of their children and husband. I am very thankful for the example my mother has given to me. (Actually I suppose this should have been a Mother's Day post for my mom.) So the cost of motherhood -- be it natural, adoptive, or even just spiritual -- is high, but it is an opportunity to live as Christ and to represent Him here on earth as one lives out the call in Philippians 2 to both look to the interests of others and to take on the attitude of Christ. Though there is a cost, the reward can be great as you see your children (again in the physical or spiritual sense) walking with the Lord and pursuing Him with a passion. I think we are all called to be mothers and fathers, at least spiritually as we pass on our faith to those around us and disciple them in Christ. And so with these girls here in El Salvador, I do want to be a mom, probably one of many, in their lives for the time that I am here and serve them and love them.