We are your average, American family; dad, mom, three boys, and two dogs that are constantly causing trouble.
Except we look a weeeeeeeeee bit different.
We are actually two white folks, including one with a bunch of freckles who doesn’t tan well, plus three black boys, ranging in age from five months to 18 years old.
Ok, we’re an anomaly and we know it. Some people think we are just plain weird. I’m okay with that.
To be honest, Brian and I really don’t care what people think of us. The choices to form our family have quite obviously not been due to public opinion.
We didn’t plan on adding three children in one year. We didn’t plan on adding children of all one specific race to our family.
We agreed, from the start of our marriage, that our family would include children who needed homes, stability, and love.
This year, three children entered our lives that needed just that. They just all happen to be boys and they just happen to be black.
One through legal guardianship. One through foster care. One through adoption.
At this point, just one has our last name.
But don’t be mistaken, each one has our heart.
A year ago today, I wrote a post about our city and our family. At that point, we had just welcomed our J-man into our home a few months before.
Thinking about Martin Luther King, Jr., his impact, his life, and his role in the city that we live rang especially deep in my heart last year.
Today, I can say that MLK’s words and his mission for equality bears even more weight and significance in my life.
Now, as parents of a black teenager, we have witnessed that misconception and prejudices about race are still prevalent and thriving. The road for our boys will not be easy.
We feel a very strong burden to give them the foundation in which to navigate a world where color is often still the first thing a person sees when making a judgement on character ability.
We believe that their culture and their heritage is paramount to who they are and needs to be cultivated.
We pray that the first and foundational thing in which they identify themselves is their faith in Christ.
We envision a future for them where their relationships and community is not defined solely by their race, but instead by common values and beliefs.
We hope that one day, our son will not be feared because he is walking down the street in a grey hoodie and jeans.
We pray daily that our boys will become Godly men of integrity and honor, who do not believe anything is owed to them, but instead stand and fight for justice of those around them who cannot.
Brian and I know that the choices we have made to form our family won’t be accepted by everyone.
We know that we don’t have all the answers on how to raise our boys.
We are quite aware that we will make many mistakes along the way.
But we are very sure that the three boys placed in our home this past year are here because they belong in OUR FAMILY. Not just anywhere, but here, with us and our two crazy dogs.
“Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”– Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
We have faith that though we don’t know what the road with our boys looks like ahead, we are a family formed with a purpose. And we are going to move forward and figure this out this crazy life together.
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Leslie and her husband, Brian, live in Montgomery, Alabama where he is a youth pastor and she coordinates ONEfamily, an orphan care ministry. She’s a mom to five boys, some with two legs and some with four legs. All of them are amazing and usually stinky. Leslie enjoys quiet places, watching SEC football, and drinking an entire cup of coffee – none of which happen on a regular basis. She blogs about life with her boys over www.waitingonaword.blogspot.