Our relationship really moved to a whole new level when Amber moved in with us after graduating from high school. Autumn moved in a little over a year ago. Another memorable event was when I drove Amber down to college for her first year. It’s funny, I remember telling Melissa she was going to do it the next time because it was too hard for me to dump my kid 1100 miles away and leave. This coming year though we look forward to celebrating graduations for both of them. While I throw that out as a simple one line sentence, don’t lose the magnitude of those two events.
So how do you inject two girls into your lives and do it well? I have no idea. I don’t think you can.
We didn’t plan on it but God certainly moved us along a path. That’s the miracle part. We are not that good and we are not that special. I am constantly reminded of how little I know and how much I do not control. One thing I know is that our bond is strong and our well of love is deep. Sounds mushy but it’s God given and God sustained.
It has been an incredible journey with them and in many ways we have only just begun. I would not change the journey for anything. I cannot believe I get to be part of their lives! I often wonder why God picked us for this whole thing. We often feel rather inadequate and unequipped but we don’t question the fact that our hearts are knit together
Most of all, today I am proud to call them family, specifically daughters. I told them both recently, it is a short list. There are only five names on the kid list and they are on it. They are on the list. You don’t just get on that list and you don’t just get off it. That list is controlled by God and because he is full of love, mercy and grace, he put us all together. And I am forever grateful.
As our relationship grew, the trust they had in us also grew. Many times they would call us in the middle of the night when things didn’t go quite right at home. Even in those early years we had tears for them and through them our bond became stronger.
I personally got to play a bigger role when I picked Autumn and Amber up every day for school one semester. 
I knew that they did not attend every day and really wanted to encourage them to go. So during that fall semester I made sure they at least got to school. They didn’t always stay but at least I knew they got there. The next semester of that year we allowed Amber to drive our spare car and so she then drove them both to school after that. Previous to that we got to teach Amber how to drive and put her through driver’s training. Why is it that she always liked to hug semis?!?!?! I think that was the beginning of my gray hair.
Together we have shared many life moments. From parent teacher conferences to the births of all three of our younger kids. We took them both to camp. We celebrated with Amber when she graduated from high school. When we got the news of the death of Melissa’s brother, they were with us.
5 kids. If you would have told me 10 years ago I would have 5 kids I would have said you were on crack. But here I am in 2009 with 5 kids. And it’s incredible.
I have never really written publicly about our experience and I am very conscious of Jesus’ words in Matthew chapter 6. That being said, I think there is room to brag on God and to tell a story of life, love and miracles.
This is the story of how God brought two young girls into our lives and how our lives have never been the same since. Oh, and this is the short version.
Our relationship with Amber and Autumn began over 9 years ago. Honestly we were not looking to begin a relationship with them but God in his sovereignty brought our paths together and planted a love for them in us even back then.
It all began with a phone call from another family asking us if we could pick the two of them up for church on a Wednesday night. At the time we were youth leaders and without kids so we quickly agreed. It’s amazing to me to think what impact that one phone call has had.
After that first call we picked them up almost every Wednesday for youth group and then over time we began picking them up for Sunday church services as well. Honestly in our minds it wasn’t this great thing we were doing; we were simply providing rides to a couple of girls who wanted to come to church.
Our picking them up on Wednesdays soon turned into them coming over for dinner most weeks and many times this included friends of theirs. It was not unusual for us to have several teenagers around our table week in and week out. During these times, we had great conversations and got to know them well. Our conversations would pick back up on the rides home and it was not too long until they started confiding in us about their home life. Over the years it was also not unusual for the girls to spend the night at our house during weekends so that they could attend church and not have to get up so early.
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