Chasing After Crazy Life Decisions

Hello everyone! I'm David--one of the Sheppard kids--here to update you on some of the goings-ons with Mom, Dad, and the rest of the family in Haiti.

If I had a nickle for every time...
Every time I find myself talking about my incredible family, my eyes are met with incredulity from anyone who hasn't heard about them before. Fourteen children, homeschooled, and now living in Haiti as missionaries. Certainly not a typical family so it's easy to understand their surprise. And really, it's very exciting to share of God's faithfulness to us. Of course, it's then only natural to wonder at the circumstances which ignited the fire of courage to make these difficult decisions.The answer, of course, is complicated, convoluted, and confusing enough to fill the pages of a decent sized book. So as not to bore you--or bore myself and hurt my fingers typing--here's a reader's digest gander into our life decisions.

The simple answer is that God's called us to serve and we've done our best at responding to that call whenever we hear it. No matter the circumstances. An example I've heard my dad use many times is that we've never known where we'd get the money to complete an adoption upon commencing along any of our 12 adoption journeys. In spite of the perceived impossibilities, each time a figurative door shuts a window is opened (yeah, yeah...I know it's a cliché but sometimes clichés are true). Finding those windows has made for a host of exciting and, perhaps, unorthodox life decisions. Some have called it crazy. "How can you do that to your kids?!" they question, as if living a life contrary to American normality is borderline neglect.

Many other people seem very impressed and we've been blessed with enthusiastic friends who've consistently contributed their time, skills, prayers, and even their finances to support us and sometimes carry us through our more difficult times. Even still, I can't tell you how many times people have told me that they couldn't do what we do. A fantastic friend and former neighbor of ours even nicknamed our mom "Supermama". A more perfect nickname I know not. But it promotes the idea of being abnormally special when the reality is that we're not any more or less special than the barista serving coffee at a Starbucks in California or the CEO of a Fortune 500 company in New York. The most special thing about our lives is a gift which God has freely given to all who choose to accept it.

And really, that's the center of it all. The very core of our decision making process. That's also the reason we have a difficult time answering the question of what we do. From Guatemala, Ecuador, the USA, and Haiti, we've been doing our best to simply keep Jesus at the center and trust God to meet all of our needs. Is that crazy? If so, then we'll continue chasing after the next Crazy Life Decision and trust God will catch us every time we fall.