Are you All In?

You never know how adoption will impact you or those around you.    In a little less than 2 weeks one of our sons will marry a wonderful young lady.   Funny part is how they initially met.

Back when our son was a new transfer student at his university a young lady heard that a new guy was on campus and that he had 3 sisters from China.  This girl had always wanted to adopt and wanted to get to know this guy.   Well they first became friends and then eventually started dating and will marry soon.   How neat to think that us adopting the girls led to this initial interest.

We now wonder will they adopt?  If so when and from where?   I know they both have a heart for adoption and that excites me.

How does it impact others around you?   Trust me if you talk with me for more than a few minutes you will learn that I have a heart for adoption and we will be talking about it.   Many of our friends are from the adoptive family community.   It has a profound impact.

I guess you can say that we are "All In" when it comes to caring for children and adopting.  What does it mean to be all in?  To be all in you have to give everything and hold nothing back.  You have to be intentional, you need intensity and it will lead to an investment.   A young lady this week said "If I am not all in am I in at all?  Wow a lot of wisdom in that statement.

This week I was talking with a nurse at my doctors office and she just could not understand how someone could adopt.  "All that money"  "It cost $240,000 to get a child through high school" and on and on and on she went.   I explained that if adopting was a calling you felt the money was not a factor and that even having additional biological children was often a calling.    After I walked away it occurred to me, what is she investing in?   I wonder do they have a huge house?   Do they drive new cars?  Do they have a boat or jet ski's?   Do they pay big money for season tickets to see some sports team play?  Do they eat out 5 times a week?   What have they invested in?   Not that any of this is necessarily bad but just that we have chosen to invest in another area.  We feel that God called us to raise children and to adopt and therefore we have invested in that area.   We have chosen to stay in our home and not dream of a bigger newer house.  We chose to drive older cars, to not have boats and other toys. It is a choice and we don't regret it. 

Today in church our pastor talked about priorities and that you can only have one main priority in life and that you need to be able to identify that one priority.  For me it did not require much thought God is first and family is second.  3 of the results of our main priority after God were sitting with me and their mother and their 3 older brothers were in various places in multiple states and their younger brother was nearby in church too.   We believe that as a result of God being a priority in life he led us to adopt and to follow Him in that way.

What is your main priority in life?  Are you "All In"?  Is God first?   What has being "All In" cost you?  Are you intentional, intense and invested?   Is your main priority the right priority or should you be seeking what the real priority should be?   Be willing to put your hand to the plow and seek the treasure that God has for you.  Invest in the things that matter.   For you that may be much different than it has been for us.   We feel confident that our main priority is the right one for us and are very thankful for where it has led us.

Thought for this week.  What are you "All In for"?