The Etters at Home

The road to adoption isn't easy.  Anyone who has followed our journey knows this to be true.  But life after adoption is no cakewalk either.  All of the training, videos, podcasts, books, classes and advice could not prepare us for life with our newest family member.  And yet, we have all grown over the past month since Niky became our son (and brother).

Retrospect is everything and looking back, we're not sure which was harder:  life with a newborn or life with a newly adopted, special needs four-year old.  They both rank up there as pretty much the hardest things we've ever done.  But we haven't been alone.  In the beginning, in that tiny Bulgarian apartment, we lived 15 minutes at a time with our new Niky, raising a "hallelujah" to thank God for getting us through another quarter hour unscathed.  Over time we gradually started to live day by day, praising Him for living to see another bedtime.  Now the days blur into weeks and we're watching progress in motion for a little boy who was all but given up on.

James 1:2 says "Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance."  It's been a difficult few weeks in the Etter home, and I can't say we've always responded to the tests with faith and grace.  But we do know that the more we lean on the Spirit of God we are proving our faith in Him.  I can distinctly recall each and every moment my tear-filled eyes cried out to God:  "This is too hard!  I can't do this!"  And I can also just as distinctly hear the voice of God replying back to me:  "Not by power or by might, but by my spirit."