A house full of jewels...

The past couple of weeks have been somewhat difficult for me as I have been struggling with people who just "don't get it" when it comes to our children.
When we adopted Phoebe, people would tell me that it was so "nice" of us to adopt a transracial baby who needed a home. Now that we are adopting three children from Haiti at one time, & one of those with special needs, I am getting a lot of "it's so "nice" of you to do this", "you are a better person than I am", "you are so brave", "you're really going to have your hands full." Ugh!!! Some days I just want to scream & pull my hair out!
I have to really restrain myself so I don't shake them & say, "Don't you get it??? It's not about us...it's about God!!! We're not doing this because it's something "nice" to do. We're not doing this because we're bored & don't have anything else to do. We're not doing this because we're delusional & think that adopting 3 children at one time will be easy. We're not even doing this because we love children...which we do. We're doing this because God called us to do this!!!"

God knew I needed some encouragement so he had my "dreamer" friend call me the other day. I call her my "dreamer" friend because God speaks to her a lot through her dreams. The last dream she had about me was that we were adopting 3 children instead of 2 & that one was a boy. So when she called & said, "I had a dream that I need to share with you" I said,"Okay"...and braced myself for anything. Before she told me about her dream she said, "You do know that there is a specific reason why you are adopting these 3 children. That God hand picked each of your children for specific reasons that are part of His plan. That this wasn't just some random thing going on." I told her that I did know that although I don't know the specifics of it at this time. This was her dream: She & many other people were at my house with Phoebe, & they were stocking our pantry, frig, & freezer with food & getting the hosue ready as Randy & I were gone to bring Shakira, Samara, & Caleb home. During this time she noticed Phoebe standing in the living room holding a very large diamond in her hands. She asked Phoebe several times to give it to her & each time Phoebe would say, "NO...I can't...it's me...it's who I am." She was getting more & more frustrated with Phoebe & then we came home with the other children. She said as soon as the children walked in the house, jewels just started dropping off of them. Rubies were dropping off of Shakira, some beautiful purple stone that was not an ameythest, was dropping off of Samara, & sapphires were dropping off of Caleb. She said all of the jewels shined brightly & not one shined brighter than another. Then she woke up.

She knows the difference between "her" dreams & God's dreams so she asked God what the dream meant. God told her that our children's gifts will shine like those jewels & that our house will shine with the essence of these children & their gifts that He has given them. I just started to cry & then I thanked God for giving me that encouragement. I long for the day when all four of our children will shine brightly together in our house!