In Which I Touch on Horses and Adoption

"In my opinion, a horse is the animal to have. Eleven-hundred pounds of raw muscle, power, grace, and sweat between your legs - it's something you just can't get from a pet hamster." ~Author Unknown

[I wrote this post last week, but did not post it, because I didn't think I'd spent enough time on it or put enough thought into it. Since I don't think I'll have time any time soon to work on it more, I'll post it anyway and ask for grace]

We were in Missouri this week, staying with a family that adopted twenty-two kids. They let us ride their horses. They said, "Here's a horse," and off you could go and do whatever. I cantered on that beautiful, old boy in the front. He rode as smooth as glass.

We rode barefoot and I got a blister.

The stirrups where far too long and I had to stretch, but when I cantered

I took my feet out and hung on with my legs.

This is Magic. He's twenty-two and has the kindest spirit,

and has to always be ahead of the herd.

It was Calvin's first time really riding and he says he has the horse bug.

"100 years from now, it will not matter what kind of car I drove, what kind of

house I lived in, how much was in my bank account, or what my

clothes looked like; but the world may be a better place, because

I was important in the life of a child."

The main reason we found ourselves on this farm in Missouri, surrounded by a couple dozen children, was because we want to adopt and we wanted to experience first-hand what it will be like. We also had lots of questions needing answers.

So the Ritter family took us in and let us be flies on the wall.

This is homeschool at it finest. 

We gathered in the family room for the whole morning, listening and asking questions,

yet it felt like an hour. Mrs. Ritter was honest and open and simple, patiently re-explaining
things and giving examples that we could see. We asked the children what had made them
feel welcome and wanted in their new family. They said it was being treated equal and like
a member of the family.

There was so much, I can't repeat it all here.

But, as I looked around myself at all these kids who come from places most people can't
imagine, I knew that adoption is possible, because
it's God who works in the life of a child.

Every Christian has been adopted by Jesus. 

Without Him, nothing at all is possible.