Can of worms or testimony?

It takes a while to describe my family to a stranger.

For those who feel that 6 children is a lot-- when they see me-- they want to talk about it. What is this mystery of half a dozen children?? (insert eye-roll) I always want to break out a laptop and show them pictures of my friends who have 7, 8, 9, 10+ children. "NOW do you think I have a lot of kids??"

But obviously I don't do that. And actually, in my heart, I need to be careful. I don't ever want to pass up an opportunity to share what God has done.

And the opportunities are usually plentiful because, inevitably, people aren't satisfied with "We have 5 girls and 1 boy." Then they want to know how he feels about being the only boy. "He's a great brother, the perfect man for the job," I always say. To which they give me that "oh isn't that cute" smile. Then they tell me "My, you don't look like you've had 6 kids!" Because that's what you have to say to anyone who's had more than two or three children. Then the moment of truth. I could just smile, take the credit and say "thank you". Or I could reply "Well, actually our son was adopted". Can of worms: open.

At this point, I can A) choose to explain our family from the beginning, and hope they're ready for a good long story, or B) let them figure it out after a long string of questions.

"Where did you adopt him from?" "Ukraine." "What made you decide to adopt from there?" "Weeelll...... when our third biological daughter was born with Down Syndrome...."

I get different reactions here. And I can always tell if this person knows someone with Down Syndrome at this point. If they don't, I get a "oh you poor thing" reaction. If they do, I get an excited wince sometimes followed by them grabbing my arm. :) And then I pause the story to hear about their friend/family member with DS.

So I carry on, "So then the Lord called us to adopt our son, who has Down Syndrome as well. And he was in Ukraine, so thats where we went."

Now people are usually either dumbfounded or completely marveled that we would adopt a child with Down Syndrome. I actually had one lady at Starbucks tell me, "Well, you're just gonna go straight to heaven." The sarcastic side of me really wanted to say, "You think so? Ok, good, 'cause that's why we did it." But I duct taped the mouth of my flesh, and my spirit went on to share that we stepped out in faith to do something that God called us to. And how its enriched our lives immeasurably. Which I fully believe, I just get worn out by  dumb people  ignorant people " uninformed individuals". ;)

Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. (Mat. 26:41)

At this point most people have forgotten the number 6 because they are are imagining a family with 2 children with Down Syndrome. So its really a finally blow when I say, "And then I had two more babies."

To which I quickly have to follow that up with, "But we wouldn't trade it for the world!"

If I'm feeling really brave (and have some time on my hands) I'll add in the story of Oleg.

Anyway, I experienced this twice today. Once to a super sweet Christian mom who thought our story was awesome. The other was to a mom who had this baffled look on her face and kept coming back to me with more questions.

Our family's story is a testimony, there's no two ways about it. And it takes a while to share it. Each and every time I have to crucify my flesh and decide: am I going to hurry through this story, or am I going to stop and seize an opportunity to share what God has done in our lives? I wish I could say its an easy decision every time. But sometimes, especially if all of the kids are with me, I just want to hurry on my way.

God, forgive me! Let me never be in too much of a hurry to share Your goodness and mercy. Or to be discerning to how this is touching someone else's life. Give me the boldness to take it a step further by offering Jesus. Help me to slow down, put off my old man, and walk in boldness and passion for You. Always. Thank You Father for all that you've done and for these half a dozen miracles walking around my house. I love you.

**This post was from several months ago but I never posted it. Just founded it and thought I'd share**