Some catchy title that makes you want to read the whole thing.

Warning: if you've ever pondered adoption, this video will only push you over the edge:

Isaiah's Story from 31Films on Vimeo.

Back in May on our flight to Dallas to pick up our Baylor girls to take to Guate, Eliot and I were in a row with a stranger while Russ and his iPod were sitting kitty corner across aisle. (read into that, honey, go ahead.) The stranger, S, was a very kind Dallas local returning from a business trip.

We started the normal chit chat:
S: "Do you live in Dallas or are you on a trip?"
Me: blah blah stopping overnight on our way to Guatemala
S: "Oh! Wow! Guatemala? for vacation?"
Me: "Oh, haha, no. We're meeting a team and leading a mission trip."
S: "What will you do there?"
Me: blah blah mission trip stuff blah blah
S: "Wow. How did you get started with that?"
Me: blah blah, eliot, blah blah, adoption
S: "So, you've been to Guatemala before?"
Me: blah blah lived there with Eliot for 8 months to finish the adoption, blah
S: "Wait...what?"
Me: repeat story
S: silence. Looks away.

Few minutes pass

S: "Is that a tattoo?"
Me: "Yeah!"
S: "What does it say?"
Me: blah blah beloved is mine, blah, husband (guy with the iPod and no goldfish) has other half, blah.
S: "Hmph. Wow."

Few minutes pass

S: "So, do you think you'll adopt again?"
Me: "Well, Guate is closed right now but we recently became foster parents so we'll start getting domestic kids soon. We won't be adopting most of them, just fostering them, of course."
S: silence. staring at me. full eye contact.
Me: starting to get awkward. act like eliot needs something.
S: still staring.

Few minutes pass.

S: "Why do you do it?"
Me: "Do what?"
S: "All of it, why do you do all of it?"
Me: stumped silence. ramble about something that doesn't really answer the question.

I didn't have an answer. There's a million reasons but I couldn't pick the one that was truly the answer. (In)fertility? Sort of. Call to serve God in the city? Kinda. Feel called? I guess. For each story shared I had a different answer as to the reason but this guy strung them all together and wanted to know the motivation. Tattoo? I love Russ. Mission trip? We love Guatemala. Fostering? We love the city, kids, etc.

Bottom line? The reason we do all of it/any of it? We are loved. We are pursued passionately by God more than we imagine.

It's not like we wake up each day and declare "God loves us so we should go serve Him today!" and then find ourselves in all kinds of wacky adventures, but it does mean that we have passions for the things He's passionate about. Not because we're awesome or cool or better or holy, in fact we're pretty messed up. But we have made a decision as a family to be available.

This topic has been in my thoughts about 95% of the time in the last week. Part of that is because I'm in over my head with Baby T, but part of it is the blog world. There was an amazing conference in Austin last weekend and the blog world is exploding with posts. I'm posting a few of my favorites. Check them out, bookmark them, whatevs, just make sure you read them.

This post about christians and adoption.

This post about why she chose to adopt when all was comfortable.

This post is a letter to foster parents.

This post got me all fired up. Like only a peppermint mocha followed by a Mountain Dew can do. Oh my. Good luck.