My family

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Yesterday we had a friend take some family photos for us.  We have not done an "official" one for several years.....so everyone got nice clothes on on Sunday afternoon and we went out for some smiles......gosh I love my family.  We are perfect.  We are flawed.  Even so.....we are family.  I have a storehouse of memories for each person in this picture....and then another storehouse for the collective ones we share.  I am blessed beyond measure.  Daily, we experience adversity.  Financial strain, work stress, school drama, behaviors, emotions, microwaves that break on Sunday afternoon......and dishwashers that leak on a Thursday. 

We are family, flawed and fragile, but full of love every single day.  Love makes this family.  Some asked me if the child in the photo was an announcement for a next adoption.  Don't think I don't ask often to add to our family again and again.  I do and I think I probably always will, not because we have the means....but because we have the love.  The child in the photo lives in Haiti.  When Roger and Claire went to Haiti in June they met him and he needed sponsorship.  They decided we would be his sponsor and so this Christmas, he will get a gift from Katelyn's Fund.  The gift is this photo made into a puzzle that he can fix over and over again and see him, being held up by us. 

Sweet, itsn't it?  It is.  Sweeter still would be him fixing the puzzle as he waits to come into a family.  Ours or another, and loved physically and not just in a frame or with a check.  Sponsoring is important and necessary to help kids around the world get food and clothes and education......but sponsoring is NOT family.  Family is so much more. 

Please, if you have not sponsored a child in need, consider it.  If you have sponsored and shared with a child, consider actually setting down the photo and picking up and application to start a journey to adoption.  You can do it.  Messy.  Spendy.  Scary.  So, so worth it. 

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