Written by Kasi Pruitt
Before Shane and I were even married, we knew adoption would be part of our
family story. We weren’t exactly sure what that would look like, but we knew we
would someday and somehow walk this journey.
When we were married about 8 years, we started looking into adoption and
landed on adopting from Uganda, Africa. We were working with an adoption
agency but one day we were reached out to by someone who knew of a little boy
in Uganda who needed a family. She asked us if we were open to adopting a
child with “special needs”. I asked what needs she was talking about. She shared
with me what they thought this little boy’s needs were. Shane and I prayed about
it and said “YES!”
A few short months later we were in Uganda to bring our son home. When we
landed in Uganda we quickly realized that there was much more going on than
what we thought. After several weeks in Uganda, we came home and
immediately got Titus into see doctors.
This is when everything changed. We were about to walk a road we had not
planned. All the needs we didn’t think we were open to were now our reality.
This is also where God did a personal work in me. In the American church we are
taught that everything that is good, safe, and easy is from God. And anything that
is hard, inconvenient, causes suffering, or uncomfortable, He must not be in. The
problem with that is this is not what Scripture teaches. All throughout the Bible
you see God being with and using people who are walking through incredibly
difficult things.
So as we started walking this road of loving and advocating for this little miracle
boy God had entrusted to us, we had to come face to face with our own
entitlement. To lay down the desire of comfort. To realize that God has just
wrapped his goodness up in this little warrior boy and would use him in ways our
minds could not even comprehend.
10 years ago, as I held him for the first time, my life changed forever. He has
changed me forever. Titus was way sicker than we could have ever imagined.
His needs would be way more significant than we ever dreamed possible. As I
write this, I am sitting with him in the hospital as he just had his 20th surgery.
BUT GOD. God has taught me more about His character and His Kingdom
through Titus. Titus has wrecked so much in me, in the best possible way. Our
lives and family are different because of Him.
Our other kids are more compassionate people because of their brother. They
see and celebrate differences. To them, he is just their brother. They love him,
care for him, love to make him smile, and will do whatever they need to for him.
Do things look differently for our family sometimes? Sure! Do we have to think
through everywhere we go to make sure it will be wheelchair accessible for him?
Yes! Do we have more doctor appointments, medicines, surgeries, etc. than
most? Absolutely.
But different and hard do not equal bad. They just equal different. And different is
beautiful. Different makes us better. Different makes us aware that the world
doesn’t revolve around us. God moves in different.
Titus has shown us that suffering is never for nothing. Titus has shown us that
God doesn’t desire comfort but instead faithfulness. Titus has truly taught us
about God’s upside-down Kingdom. There is certainly hard, but I promise you
there is so much more joy!
Many look at T and see a “disability”. But I see a little boy daily used by God to
make everyone around him better. A little boy fearfully and wonderfully made. A
little boy made in God’s image. He may have disabilities but that certainly isn’t
who he is. They do not define him. He is sweet, smiley, easy going, and lights up
ever room he is in.
He is a world changer. I can say without a doubt, he has changed mine, our
family, and so many others around him. The world is better because of him.
