A TABLE WITH ROOM
It was a little over two years ago. Amber had spotted a table that she wanted. As luck would have it, the location of said table was a photo on Pinterest (the last place in the world that I would ever look for anything). Then came the shocker: the photo included a link to instructions on how to build the table.I've built a few things throughout the years, but furniture was not one of them. Thankfully my friend, Justin, was up for the task. He built the table for us, exactly how we had pictured it. We always wanted a big table for our family. I remember when the day came for our newly built table to arrive at our house.It was perfect. Just like we had pictured. The stain, the wood grain, the lines. It was even better than I imagined.It was also BIGGER than I imagined. When our family of 5 sat at the table, we realized how many people we could actually fit around this new centerpiece of our home. We thought about the stories that would be shared. The marks that would be pressed into the wood from our kid's math homework. The prayers that would be prayed. The meals that would be shared. And most important: the memories that would be made.Why did we build it so BIG?Honestly, at that point, we didn't really know. We just thought it would fit our house well. Little did we know how well it would eventually fit our family.Sometimes God surprises us, and works in the little details without us even knowing or understanding. In His grace, He is setting things up, preparing us - without our knowledge or our input - for something that will go beyond what we would expect. For us, this was a call to serve as foster parents.As I write this, we now have 5 kids in our home. Yes, you read that correctly. The Sollie home includes 5 kids, 1 Mom, 1 Dad, and 1 dog named Mia (who we were told was a Chihuahua, but is absolutely not...). We built a huge table with 3 kids, thinking our family was complete. But little did we know...I am thankful that God has a table with room for us, and the world around us. It is open, spacious and ready to be engaged. I hope that the table in this home continues to reflect the table that Jesus has set for us.