Family Reunion

Family reunion: an occasion where members of an extended family congregate.

This weekend, part of my extended family came over for a visit in our home. Some of my favorite people gathered in our backyard. As an Adoption Consultant for Christian Adoption Consultants, this is admittedly a huge perk to my job. A small portion of my local adoptive families (and some not so local!) came over to eat, to celebrate, and to share. This was our second annual family reunion (you can find the first here) and I plan to have many more in the years to come! 

As we prayed over our meal, my sweet families gathered in my kitchen, I had the honor of praying over them and for all of the other families unable to be there. One on a flight to meet a birth mama. Another family in a hotel room across the country meeting their new son. And many others scattered across the US and even the globe that I have the honor of walking beside as they grow their family through adoption.

We spent the afternoon eating yummy food, kids jumping in the bounce house and swinging on the playset, cooing at babies, and catching up on life. My favorite part was all the mamas sitting around my dining room table swapping adoption stories. Talking about the messy, beautiful, redemptive, hard stuff of adoption. Instead of discussing jobs and homes and catching up on news and sports like some family reunions, we discussed adoption ethics, prepping for adoption, meanings behind names, and relationships with birth families.

This is Norah, Zola, and Abraham. They each have amazing stories about how they joined their families.  Adoption creates family in more ways than one. A child receives an adoptive family. A birth family becomes extended family. And an adoptive family becomes a part of a larger community of other like-minded families with a passion for living out the gospel through adoption.  

I am blessed that I get to watch it all unfold. I'm especially blessed when I watch it in my living room.