Rather than Rebar

It was 1996 and we had one child. We wanted more children and the Lord was leading us to adopt a sibling group of three from foster care in Texas. My Hero worked at that time at Weld Wheel Industries in Kansas City and many of his coworkers were excited to hear of our adoption journey.

He walked into the purchasing office one day and the woman there asked him how the adoption was going. He told her about the three kids and she said, "That is so exciting! You are going to be like those people in Reader's Digest!"

He jokingly replied, "You mean the guy who gets a piece of rebar through his brain and has to walk through rough terrain for 10 miles to get help?"

She laughed and said, "No! The people who adopt 10 kids!"

A co-worker had overheard part of the conversation and asked, "Who's adopting 10 kids?"

"Mark is!" she answered.

The guy shook his head and said, "I'd rather have the rebar."

We adopted the three. In 2001, we adopted two more. This week we finalized the adoption on our youngest three children. That makes nine. We have decided that in order to avoid becoming "those people" in Reader's Digest, we are stopping at 9.