Ever since we made the decision to follow God's call and adopt a little girl from Ethiopia, I have had James 1:27 running through my mind almost continuously. It goes like this:
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27 (NIV).
Another set of scriptures that keep coming to mind are:
"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'" Matthew 25:34-40 (NIV)
I ran across a statistic on Steven Curtis Chapman's adoption website for his Shaohannah's Hope foundation that really hit home and reinforced our commitment to adoption. The statistics show that if just 7% of the 2 billion Christians worldwide would adopt just one orphan, there would be no orphans in the world. Let that sink in a little bit....only 7% of Christians worldwide could give a home to all the orphans in the world!
We don't know exactly how God is going to bring this all about but we know without a doubt that He capable of anything if we are willing to say "yes, Lord, use me."
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
1st home study meeting scheduled!
This is a brief post but one to let everyone know that we have our first home study meeting on January 28th at 7 p.m. This will be the meeting where we receive all the document requirements that must be completed during the home study period. Hopefully we are a little bit ahead of the game because we are using the same agency and same social worker that our friends, the Ninemires, are using for their adoption so we know some of what is expected of us. Please keep our family in your prayers are we begin to work on the home study, dossier and immigration requirements in the next couple of months.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
In the beginning....Part 1
I believe our journey that brought us to this point began Sept. 5, 2001. We were expecting our 4th child and were 3 months along when my wife had a miscarriage. We were heartbroken but knew that God was in control. After this tragedy, my wife still wanted to have another child but I locked up my heart and refused to even think about it for fear of being hurt again. I was also fearful for my Sandy's health should she have a troubled pregnancy. During this time, Sandy would bring up adopting a child from another country periodically and I was always unwilling to even consider this even though it is something that both she and Hannah wanted so badly. I just somewhat made myself numb to the thought of having another child in the family.
Fast forward now from the tragedy we experienced in 2001, to January 2008. We were presented with an opportunity to bring a 1 yr. old girl into our house with the expectation and the understanding that we would be given the opportunity to adopt her later in the year. This girl was quickly acclimated to our family and we had a terrific time with her. She was abruptly taken from our house in early August with only a few hours notice by some of her family and we have not seen her since that time. This left our family devastated and I once again made myself numb to the thought of adoption.
This numbness was not so deep this time, though, that it could not be penetrated. Sandy began bringing up international adoption once again but I just couldn't wrap my mind around the concept but I vowed to pray about it.
During the Fall of 2008 there was several times when I felt burdened for the orphans around the world and God began softening my heart. On at least a couple of occasions when I was trying to reason why it didn't make sense either from a financial standpoint or from a practical standpoint, etc., God reminded me of some lyrics we sing from time to time in our worship. They are written by Diane Thiel and the song is title "If you say go"
If you say go, we will go
If you say wait, we will wait
If you say step out on the water
And they say it can't be done
We'll fix our eyes on You and we will come.
Your ways are higher than our ways
And plans that You have laid are good and true
If you call us to the fire
You will not withdraw Your hand
We'll gaze into the flames and look for you.
The encouragement received by God through lyrics like these began to melt my heart. God was working, preparing me for what He had in store. Looking back, I have 2 regrets. First of all, that I didn't act on His promptings sooner, because if I had, we would be that much closer to having our new little girl. Secondly, I regret not sharing all that was going on in my heart with Sandy. I held back because I was so scared to step out on faith. Ultimately what made the difference in overcoming the fear was when I realized I was more afraid of missing what God intended for my family than I was afraid of actually all that is involved in an adoption.
Fast forward now from the tragedy we experienced in 2001, to January 2008. We were presented with an opportunity to bring a 1 yr. old girl into our house with the expectation and the understanding that we would be given the opportunity to adopt her later in the year. This girl was quickly acclimated to our family and we had a terrific time with her. She was abruptly taken from our house in early August with only a few hours notice by some of her family and we have not seen her since that time. This left our family devastated and I once again made myself numb to the thought of adoption.
This numbness was not so deep this time, though, that it could not be penetrated. Sandy began bringing up international adoption once again but I just couldn't wrap my mind around the concept but I vowed to pray about it.
During the Fall of 2008 there was several times when I felt burdened for the orphans around the world and God began softening my heart. On at least a couple of occasions when I was trying to reason why it didn't make sense either from a financial standpoint or from a practical standpoint, etc., God reminded me of some lyrics we sing from time to time in our worship. They are written by Diane Thiel and the song is title "If you say go"
If you say go, we will go
If you say wait, we will wait
If you say step out on the water
And they say it can't be done
We'll fix our eyes on You and we will come.
Your ways are higher than our ways
And plans that You have laid are good and true
If you call us to the fire
You will not withdraw Your hand
We'll gaze into the flames and look for you.
The encouragement received by God through lyrics like these began to melt my heart. God was working, preparing me for what He had in store. Looking back, I have 2 regrets. First of all, that I didn't act on His promptings sooner, because if I had, we would be that much closer to having our new little girl. Secondly, I regret not sharing all that was going on in my heart with Sandy. I held back because I was so scared to step out on faith. Ultimately what made the difference in overcoming the fear was when I realized I was more afraid of missing what God intended for my family than I was afraid of actually all that is involved in an adoption.
Application submitted!
Yesterday, January 7th, 2009, we embarked on what could be the biggest adventure of our lives. After weeks of promptings by the Holy Spirit that we should become a forever family for an orphan in Ethiopia, we responded to Him by sending in our application to begin the process of bringing one of His precious little orphans home from Ethiopia. In the coming days, I want to post about some of the things leading up to our decision and why we believe God chose Ethiopia for us.
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