Still waiting…but with a much better attitude now!:)
I had a revelation this morning. What if, while driving down the highway, on our way to somewhere awesome (picture it now…minivan full of precious children, blankets, stuffies, water bottles…here we go), one of our kids started saying, “Oh, Mom, LOOK OUT!!!!”, about a car carefully passing us. And “Don’t miss your turn!!!” followed by “What if that car ahead of us veered into the truck beside it and burst into flames?! WHAT WOULD WE DO???!!!!” In addition to ‘ARE WE THERE YET?!!!” Picture this child wringing their hands and sweating, maybe even crying. This child is questioning our abilities as a driver, telling us how to do things, and terrified of what MAY happen. Wouldn’t we just want to say, “You’re being ridiculous! Settle down, take a breath….I can handle this…I know how to drive… Just trust me…..” Just trust me……. God has been whispering that to me for quite a while now. Thankfully He adds no sarcasm, like I might be prone to include if one of my kids started FLIPPING out like that. Lovingly, gently, and kindly…He whispers, “Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)
So while it is occasionally tempting to throw a little tantrum now as we continue to wait and watch others go before us, we wait and trust and KNOW that God is in total control. HE is sovereign and is up to something amazing.
In fact, He has already showered us with AMAZING these past few weeks!
Since I haven’t blogged in a while (it’s hard to write when things are unknown and seem dreary or depressing) I will get you up to speed. On August 9th, we got the “good news/bad news email from our facilitator. Good news: we are approved to adopt from Ukraine!!! Bad news: Guardianship issues. L The bad news weighed me down. I have been in a very sad cloud for weeks. You wouldn’t have wanted to read a blog from me then. I have been the sweating, worrying, child in the backseat- wringing my hands. But I suppose I stopped long enough to hear God’s whisper and now (this week, anywayJ) I’m doing fine! We are on an amazing road trip. I am now peacefully looking out the window and enjoying the scenery and all of God’s AMAZING! SO, we are still waiting for details to be sorted out. The vague time frame we got this morning was 2-3 weeks from today. Rather than dwell on the fact that we missed V’s Bday, as I was in my sad cloud, I choose to trust that God has even more amazing in store for us as a result of this wait. Perhaps there is a certain person we will meet over there who we wouldn’t have met earlier? Maybe there is an experience we will have that we wouldn’t have experienced earlier. We may never know, this side of Heaven…but I’m content to trust that God has a reason for this timing.
OK, now that you are caught up….the AMAZING shower of blessings….
First, several months ago we were put in touch with an absolute angel in Ukraine, who is well known to several other adoptive friends. We’ll call her “L”. She has a BIG heart for orphans and was living in Ukraine at the time. She has since moved away, but CONTINUES to intervene for us although WE’VE NEVER EVEN MET! Several years ago she “adopted” our little guy’s foster family and has been doing birthday and Christmas parties for the kids in that family. Through Church, she was acquainted with a gentleman who also has a heart for orphans. We’ll call him “S”. When he decided to start hosting adoptive families, L. contacted S. on our behalf. That leads us to our second paragraph of AMAZING:
Secondly, S. agreed to host us for part of our stay in country. Complete strangers….five soon to be six of them! :) This in itself was God’s way of saying to me, “TRUST ME”. You see, three other options I thought we had for places to stay while there had fallen through, one by one, for various reasons. L. had no idea I was sweating this out….but God prompted her to ask S. to host us, on our behalf and he AGREED! :)
Thirdly, after adding S. as a new friend on fb, he, S., ran across a photo of our V on my fb page. Hold on for another dose of AMAZING…..S. had a realization that out of 30,000 orphans in Ukraine, and out of several hundred families from all over the world, THE family of random strangers (us) who he agreed to host is adopting a little guy who he has been visiting as an outreach once a month for the past 18 months. Does that make sense?! Our host, S., knows our V. But he had no idea of this before he agreed to host us! Wow! Only GOD could orchestrate THAT!
Financial update: As of this morning we still needed $7,725. BUT WAIT….some more AMAZING just rolled in as I checked the mail and got a check for $1,000 from a dear sweet friend. WOW!!! Her note made me cry. God has used little notes from friends all along the way to bless my heart & they always arrive at JUST the right time! Now we’re down to only $6,725!! God continues to provide. We’re still on our road trip together with God and He just pulled over and provided again. Thank you just cannot express our intense, extreme and eternal gratitude for the assistance so many of who have given to us, whether in resources, time, prayers, concern, conversation or all of the above. And you may be thinking, like the skeptical kid in the backseat, “wow….$6,725….that’s still a LOT of money….how are they going to do that with only 2 weeks left?” Well, MORE AMAZING for you…I just watched God provide the remaining $7,000 for our friends, P. & J., who are leaving for Ukraine TOMORROW. Their need was met via one amazing STRANGER who heard of their situation and paid it ALL. This happened with only four days to spare before they boarded the plane! We’re in front row seats to more of God’s miracles!! And in addition, because this family is now fully funded, they donated a basket and bag FULL of beautiful jewelry, which they had been using for adoption fundraising, to us to help fund the remainder of ours! Our teen daughter is so excited about it she cannot WAIT to share it with her friends at Church and School! Together we came up with a slogan for our jewelry sales: …. “Beauty for Ashes”. OK, did you just make the “What??” face like my kids did when they heard this??! It is based on Isaiah 61:1-3. “He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and open the prison to those who are bound….to comfort all who mourn…to give them beauty for ashes.” God promises to make something beautiful out of something painful. Being an orphan has GOT to be painful. We are seeking to be used by God to make something beautiful out of something sad. Jewelry is beautiful and will represent that! Thank you again, J. for making this possible!
God has brought SO many amazing people into our lives as a result of this adoption. I am thinking of each of you right now…I. & M., P. & B., J. & P., L. & S. and many more…. I didn’t even know you 9 months ago, but now I can’t imagine my life without you as a part of it!
This isn’t about a child for a family. This is about a family for a child. God has a special place in His heart for orphans. If you step out in faith to help one of them, just wait…and watch Him work for that child. It’s pretty astonishing, actually.
To be continued…… J
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