the cost

What cost is too high?  What sacrifice too great?  When in the other hand there are 2 or 3 precious lives to save.  To save from loneliness and despair.  To save from uncertainty and hunger.  To save ultimately from a too early grave. 

And in its place to give love- love of a family.  To fill with food and security.  To educate, shape and adore. 

Will it truly matter if our current children are able to maintain the few activities they enjoy?  How do you tell a starving child, "I'd love to feed you, but, you know, we have to pay for ballet instead."  ?  Will it matter if some of their clothes are no longer new, but all are borrowed and handed down?  Is it too great of a sacrifice to work until weary for a handful of years so that our family can be a bustle of activity and love- a collection of colors, cultures and backgrounds- functioning as one large Christ-serving mob?

I know there will have to be changes.  (I refuse to really even call them sacrifices.  In light of how the rest of the world sacrifices, our experience would merely involve change).  If we can't afford to expand the house, our quarters would be a bit more snug.  If my contract editing work fails to continue, we may not eat as we currently do.  As much as I adore (and I do mean adore) the girls' dance studio and instructor, we may have to install our own ballet bar and adjust to Ms. Mommy teaching dance instead. 

There may be no Starbucks, or pedicures, or cute new tops on sale at Kohls.  There may be no more new video games, Sonic or Netfix subscription.  And as the scales seek to balance...the precious lives still win out...easily.  No sacrifice is too great...no cost too high to bring my Ethiopian children home.  There is nothing I wouldn't give up...no corner I wouldn't cut just to feed them, love them, and tuck them in bed at night.

Oh how I weep out of longing for them.  I don't even know their faces and yet I see them everywhere I turn.  I don't even know their names, yet I pray for them...always.  Oh, Lord, I pray they know how greatly they are wanted...how deeply desired...how wholeheartedly fought for.  And may they never doubt, that no sacrifice was too great to bring them home.