They want to move to Russia.

When we were first married, Dave and I decided we would trust God to provide just the right kids for us - whether that came through birth or adoption.  And over the years, God has cultivated in our hearts such a strong desire for adoption, that we just can't wait to keep growing our family.

Adoption is our mission field.  It is our heart, our passion.

But when you have kids, you take them to the mission field with you. So what would happen if the kids we adopted weren't so interested in continuing to adopt?  It happens.

So we prayed.  And prayed and prayed.  And we asked God that if our heart for adoption and our passion to grow our family was truly from Him, that he would give us kids who also had hearts for adoption.

God has answered our prayers in such big ways.  Our kids both have such a desire to bring more children to our home - in fact, sometimes they overwhelm us with the prayers they pray:

"God, would you send all the kids that need a home to our family?  We'll promise to love them." 

"God, could you please send us lots of babies?  And a kindergartener too.  They're both cute."

"God, could we please get a baby sister? Or a big brother?  Or even better, both?"

"God, could you please fill our whole house with kids who need homes?"

Thankfully, our God is a wise God who can filter through the exact requests, and find the precious heart behind the prayer that wants to love on kids who need it.  And I think he'll honor that.

The other day, though, they took the adoption plans to a whole new level.

Dave turned to me, not realizing the kids were paying attention, and casually said, "Hey, did you hear that Russia isn't letting Americans adopt anymore?"

"WHAT?!" the kids replied, before I could even react.

"WHAT ABOUT THE KIDS IN THE ORPHANAGES!  We need to go get them right away before the law goes into effect!!"

They were just beside themselves, their hearts breaking for these children who needed homes.

Dave tried to explain that there wasn't anything we could do.

"I got it!" said one of the kids.  "We could move to Russia for a year.  Then we'd be Russians, so we could adopt the kids in the orphanages, then we could move back to  the USA."

"Yeah!! That's a great idea!" said the other.  "Let's do it!!"

I think that in their wonderful childish minds, they were picturing about 5 lonely kids that we could just bring back home with us.  I don't have the heart to give them a more realistic picture.

But I love that my kids were completely willing to pack it up and move to Russia to rescue kids.  They were willing to pick up their cross and follow Jesus.  How many times in my life do I want to take the easy way out?  To just decide something is impossible, or just hard, and hope someone else picks up the slack?

1 John 3:16-18: This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

This is a hard passage to live out.  It calls us to pair faith with action.  To show our love for God by loving other people.   May the challenges that God has laid out in these verses rock your world as they have mine. 

My kids have their days.  Some of them are tough.  But they have giving, generous hearts when it comes to loving children who need a home, and for that, I'm incredibly blessed.