One More Home

Happy November! The month where many thanks are shared socially and around the table. And if you weren’t aware, November is National Adoption Month. We love adoption here in the Holleran household, and it is certainly something worth celebrating. I’ve watched as many friends in our circle changed their profile pictures to include a frame that said, “I am touched by adoption.” Now if you were one of those people, please stick with me as I do not seek to criticize, but there was just something about those words I just couldn’t hold on to. Three times in my life, I have personally been impacted by adoption: the first being when I was adopted as an infant, the second being when I was adopted into God’s family through salvation, and the third being when we adopted 5 kids into our own family. Make no mistake, I’ve received a family, I’ve been given the gift of eternity, I’ve had a front row seat to watching God work as only He can all through adoption. I’ve been made a new creation, ...

I saw them. That stream of pictures of your kids in their Halloween attire. Tiny ninjas and Disney Descendants. I smiled at the shark week family and oohed over the creativity some of you have when making homemade costumes. And yeah, I felt that tiny tickle of guilt as my kids lay across all our couches, munching on popcorn and eating the small handful of snack size candy bars I gave them as they watched "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Watching a movie and not trick or treating because I just couldn't this year. October had us spending our first entire calendar month in the US as a family. It was the month my kids visited the eye doctor for the first time, started attending Sunday School for the first time, the month their dad returned to full time work, and yes, the biggest of all, they started school here in America. Which I've come to learn also seems to include the first time they have ever been asked to do homework, or maybe the first time any parent...