"I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace." Acts 20:24

To Tell of His Grace

Adoption Story~Part 2

So when Brodie got home that night, we talked about it and decided that we would take a few weeks to pray through this and see what God was up to. Honestly, we were both a bit in shock ~ now we can look back and see that the Lord had been preparing our hearts all along, but at the time it felt like it came out of nowhere. The next morning as the kids and I opened up our devotional book to June 10 and the title was "Adoption". Of course  ;-)

It spoke of how we as believers in Christ are adopted into God's family and that adopting a child who doesn't have a home or a family is a beautiful picture of God's love for us and that it is His plan for Christians to "look after the orphans and the widows" (James 1:27). So I decided to tell the kids what I felt Jesus speak to my heart the day before. They were excited...Kolson said, "So you're saying we get to adopt!?!" (He had been praying for a little brother or sister for quite some time). Keegan said, "Yes, we get to adopt!", and Kennady said, "Can it be a girl!!??!!" I told them that we were just going to take some time to pray about it and that if God was really calling our family to adopt then He would have to tell us SO clearly. Keegan said, "Well Mom, it sounds like He did yesterday".  It felt like everything around me paused again (like it had the day before when my friend spoke to me) and again I knew that Jesus was encouraging us down this path.

Well, we began to pray and talk seriously about it. We knew pretty much right away that Jesus was in fact asking us to adopt...so we were really seeking Him with a lot of questions: When? From where? What age? How, Lord? It seems like our hands are so full with our 3 and ministry work??? I woke up early the next morning after we told the kids and was praying. As I was praying, I remembered that I had been in the Christian Book Store about a month earlier and I had purchased a book that really stood out to me - I had seen it a hundred times before, but I really felt a nudge to get it that day. It was Mary Beth Chapman's book called Choosing To See, which is about the loss of their youngest daughter that they had adopted from China. I gave into the nudge and bought it and put it away in my cabinet and really forgot about it...until early that morning when the Lord brought it to my mind. I got it out and began to read it ~ again I felt the Lord really encouraging us down the path to adopt as I read about her 3 biological children and how God put it on their hearts to adopt and that she was fearful and scared at first and really didn't want to. Jesus used this to comfort me with my fears and remind me that He is in control and His Ways are best.

A few days later I woke up really loving the full nights sleep that we got and this "easy" stage of life that we are in. Our kids are great - not perfect, but all the hard work of early training and discipline has been such a blessing. I felt like Jesus spoke to my heart, "It's not about being easy - life is not supposed to be 'easy'."  I said, "Ok, Lord...but what about how wonderful it is to really be able to pour into them and spiritually train them up? A baby would change all of that!" And I felt as if He said, "This is for them - this is for your children to love Me more and serve Me more. There is no better training than living out My Word of loving the least of these."

That was all I needed to hear. I knew clearly from that point on that we were in fact headed down this path...at times doubts would come and I would feel as if He would just say, "Just trust Me and go with it". In those first few weeks, Brodie felt as if the Lord was telling him that He knows what is best for us and He knows what we need and that we just needed to trust Him. So as we prayed, God opened one door after another and on June 28, 2011 we turned in our application and started our home study. We knew clearly by that point that Jesus was calling us to the Special Needs program in China to a baby girl (0-2 years old)...it became clear to us that this is what God had planned for our family even before we were born!