We Are Expecting

Via adoption that is!!

Some of you may know by now but we are making it official. The Schramms will soon add one more to their clan.

We are going to Hong Kong sometime next year to bring home our baby (well not exactly a baby) boy/girl. We are looking at a special needs child between the ages of 1 & 4. This particular program allows you to "pick" your child which has been really really hard.

So, why adopt at all? Isn't our life full enough without adding a special needs kiddo into the mix?The answer is simple. God called us and we are answering His call. There is nothing easy about this. Rewarding, yes but not easy. There are so many references in the Bible where God has called his people to do hard things. You can't really compare adopting a special needs child to Noah building the ark, but there are similarities.

God told Noah to build the ark, so Noah built an ark. Everybody around him thought he was crazy. I'm sure he looked rather foolish having this gigantic boat for a storm that no one could even imagine. Imagine the ridicule he received at the hand of non believers.

There have been questions as to why we are doing this that have been rather uncomfortable. If I say that I that God has called us to adopt, does that make me sound self righteous? Does it mean that I have this connection to God that nobody else does? Does He speak to David and me because we are far superior Christians to everyone else? Quite the contrary. I know I speak for both of us when I say that we are flawed beyond human repair.

I've never heard God speak to me but I have seen His provision in this process. My husband was completely against adopting. One night while we were talking about adopting (yet again) he said it was like somebody flicked him in the head. Just like that, he was ready to adopt. Wow!!! God didn't send me the Holy email complete with instructions on when and where to adopt but He put my husband and me in unison. That is how I know that this is what we are supposed to be doing.

I'm not saying that if David and I both agreed that robbing a bank was a good idea it would be God's calling for us. I'm saying that in God's word He demands that we care for the fatherless. That is clear. How you take care of the orphans is where it gets dicey.

An adopted child is no less a member of your family than a biological child. God shows us this in the Bible. He adopted us into His family. He weaves us into the vine, so to speak. None of us deserves it. It is by His grace that we are members are of His family. Adopting a child is a picture of what God does for us as His children.

David and I are blessed beyond understanding with our two children. We are going to be blessed again next year. Please be in prayer for us. Please pray for God's provision throughout this process.

If you've made it this far, God love ya! I'll be updating everyone via the blog on the adoption process. Check back to see what is gong on!

Of Methodists and Presbyterians

How do two people who were born and bred Methodist decide to be Presbyterians?

You feed us, of course!

Do you remember as a little kid growing up and having church on the grounds?

That's what we do. Everybody in the picture is milling around waiting on the preacher to say grace so we can EAT!!

Get a look at all these sweet ladies ( and one man I might add) bustling around the kitchen trying to get all the food prepped and ready for the table.

I just love First Sunday Lunch!!

And by the way, I'm totally kidding about them using the food to entice us into becoming Presbyterians. David and I thought long and prayed hard about what denomination we should be and therefore raise our kids. It wasn't a decision we took lightly.

But you all know there is something so special about hanging out with all your church buddies and sharing a meal!

Yogi was sad when we got home b/c he didn't even save him one hot dog!

(Nasty) Food, Inc.

This past week has been a very enlightening one to say the least. For the past several years when anyone would mention "organic" I would have one of two reactions. 1) I would stick my fingers in my ears and sing "la-la-la-la-la" or 2) I would rant about how expensive organics were and how I could not afford them.

All that changed after watching Food, Inc.

Let me preface all this with the fact that I grew up in south GA where there were thousands of stinky smelly chicken houses. I had cows in both my front and back yard ( and even on the side when they were going from one field to the other). We even had neighbors that were pig farmers. GG, my grandmother, used to work at the sale barn in Americus where all the local farmers would bring their cattle, pigs, and the such to sell them. My brother and I would go up to see her at work and watch the auctions. So, of course, I pompously thought I had a pretty good grasp on how that end of the food industry ran.

The idea of providing good living conditions for animals was ludicrous to me. I mean, what more did they want? Shelter for the stupid cows when it rained? Apparently they way I see the cows being raised (by my grandfather, BTW) is a lot different from the way most cattle is raised on feed lots.

The pictures I saw on Food, Inc. showed these beasts standing in their own waste which piled up taller than they were. It was disgusting. Our fields back home are littered with "cow patties" but they were just more or less the things you avoided hitting on the 4-wheeler b/c the poop would spin out in the tires and splatter your entire back. Our cows don't stand in it 24/7. Their poo just went back into the soil as fertilizer.

I had heard rumors of chickens being given hormones to decrease the amount of time it took for a egg to become an chicken. I tried not to think about it ( remember the "la-la-la" episodes?). But when it is thrust in your face you just have to give it some thought. Do I want to feed a chicken to my kids that has been given hormones (and who knows what else?) to make it grow at twice the normal speed? It is hard for me to even go there. There are just sooooo many things wrong with that.

The whole time I lived in south GA I never went into a chicken house. I never wanted to . They stunk to high heaven. So I truly have no idea what the living conditions for the chickens were. I have a feeling their living conditions were as deplorable as the chickens in that documentary.

"Free range chicken" is what you're supposed to look for on the tag. I'll pay the extra money for the "organic, free range chicken" not just because the chickens have more room to move around but because they don't have to stand in their own poop all day.

As I'm telling David all about what I have learned from watching this very compelling documentary he gets this weird look on his. Um.... It might be a possibility that he told me all of this a few years ago. I must have pretended to listen while mentally stuffing my ears full of cotton and singing the "la-la-la-la" song.

Sorry babe! You were right!