Dad Story, Part 5: When the Switch Flipped

Disclaimer:  I'm writing a tale of our journey to adopt our third daughter who is our fifth child.  Yes, we're crazy.  No, I haven't won the argument to get an Armored Personnel Carrier to carry all these people.  And yes, I'm writing it from a dad's perspective.  I hope it helps some dad out there who wonders what in the world God has put on his plate.

You need to know something about the Queen.  When she is serious about something and when there is a task to accomplish that something, you can put Everest, Atilla the Hun with his hordes, and thermonuclear war between her and the goal and she will still make it look like it was easy.  To say she is persistent is the kind of understatement that makes you sound silly.  She’s a bulldog with a bone, an addict to productivity, a force of nature.  Now, before you ask what kind of woman I married, she’s amazing.  She’s not like this always.  But she has a switch that gets flipped.  When it does, 1.21 Gigawatts of energy forge a future by sheer force of will.  It’s amazing to watch.

And I’m a plodder.  But when I’m in, I’m in.  Even if it takes me a while.  I’m in.  So it was with our home study and training.  We knocked out 10 hours worth of home study in 3 days, which included two trips to a town about 90 minutes away.  We did training at night while on vacation.  Bam, it got done in record time.  In fact, she had it planned such that we were able to send in almost everything our agency needed for the next big step (which can take weeks to complete).  A force of nature, I tell you.  She’s amazing.

I put that in the record of what-happened-along-the-way because I want every dad to know that there will come a time when you’ll need to buckle down and just go for it.  Fill the form out.  Type the letter.  Watch the video.  You wouldn’t say any of it is fun but it’s the right thing to do.  I tell my boys with regularity that the difference between a boy and a man is that a boy is ruled by his appetites and a man by his responsibilities.  I knew my wife had flipped the switch and was going to run at a breathtaking pace.  It was my responsibility to keep up and do my part.  So I did.  And gladly!  Don’t think it was drudgery.  We laughed a lot and prayed quite a bit and talked and enjoyed the process.  It was an investment into her and into our daughter that I was more than willing – even excited – to make.

And you know what happened?  The switch flipped for me.  I was all in, certain that this was what we were supposed to do.  My obedience set me up for my heart to follow along.  My priorities determined my passion.  She was ours and I was (and am!) ready to have her home.