Final home study...here we come!

What we hope will be our final home study, and the conclusion of our adoption approval, is scheduled for this Friday (prayers much appreciated)!  We’ve been busy making preparations in our home for our sweet social worker when she arrives.  Here’s to hoping that this type-a girl hasn’t missed a single detail.

Things accomplished:

            Fire extinguisher purchased and ready

            Fire escape ladder in place

            Pet license ordered

            Medications on lock down

            Cleaning supplies under lock and key (that reminds me…)

Things to be accomplished:

            Buy a smaller and easier-to-lock-in-the-toolbox thing of laundry detergent   

            Locate missing first aid kit and place it in a readily available location

            Finish adoption profile

            CLEAN THIS HOUSE!

As preparations around here are wrapping up and the waiting game is on the horizon, we can’t help but take a second in this season of Thanksgiving to blog a little praise to the One whose goodness became flesh.  And as my heart has considered the satisfying goodness of Jesus, this verse continues to resonate…

For the LORD God is a sun and shield;

the LORD bestows favor and honor. 

No good thing does he withhold

from those who walk uprightly.

Psalm 84:11

This truth has been sweetness to my often-weary soul over the past couple of years as we’ve walked a road many would perceive as a lack of provision from our God.  Praise the Lord that scripture speaks a better truth over our lives.  Our sun and shield has faithfully and fearlessly been our provision and protection—even when His provision came in a different form than we hoped.  After all, the One who purchased our salvation was for many an unexpected provision.  And His goodness was seen in full through His suffering.  Good things come in unexpected ways.  And His goodness to us is overwhelming.

So when I’ve been tempted to view these years of loss as an absence of His goodness in our lives, I preach these truths to myself until I believe them.  It is against His very nature to withhold goodness from His children.  And His goodness begins and ends with Jesus.  What confidence knowing that we can trust the One whose faithfulness rises with the sun to give us what He has ordained as good—and that good is more than we can ask or imagine.

In this season of life and always, may our hearts say with the Psalmist…

           

Preserve me, O God, for I take refuge in You.

            I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord;

            I have no good besides You.”

            Psalm 16:2

Built Up In Love

Ephesians 4:16

“from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

The call to Christians to stand together in their pursuit of God’s will is a consistent message throughout scripture and the reality that we are not created to stand alone is the same. When God created Eve, He called her a helpmate. Although this picture of man and woman represents much more than the importance of friendship, the message is clear, Adam was not created to go it alone. When Moses told the Lord that he couldn’t bare the weight of the task ahead of him, God gave him Aaron. While David avoided Saul’s attempts at his life, Jonathan was a steady friend and confidant. In the midst of trying times, Ruth refused to leave Naomi’s side, and Boaz offered a gentle hand of support. The word of God is filled with stories like this, and for most of us, our lives give testament to the joys of relationship.

Crystal and I have been overwhelmed by the support that we have felt from friends and family throughout our process of trying to have a child. When we miscarried our first child we told only those we were closest to. We didn’t want the church at large to know of our struggle because the last thing we wanted was for everyone to come tell us how sorry they were. What was interesting, was the way that God seemed to give specific people insight into what we were dealing with without us saying a word. God ordained some incredible moments of encouragement and support during a time of great need, and through these relationships Crystal and I felt the ministry of the church. God had mobilized the body of Christ around us to give just the words and prayers that we needed for the moment. In the same way, God has seen fit to burden the hearts of many to support us in our adoption. We are so excited to announce that in just these few weeks God has supplied 30 percent of the money that we need to bring our child home!

Although we never doubted that God would provide the money we needed for this adoption, I don’t think we anticipated the way it would feel to see those close to us give in such a generous manner! The words of gratitude that are owed to all those who have given and will give in the future are simply to many to write, but let me offer this prayer to you.

Father just as Christ is an advocate to You for His people, allow me in this moment to be an advocate for these that have given so generously. May you see their sacrifice not as a gift to us, but an offering to You, and the support they have shown, not out of love for us, but in devotion to You. Your word says that whatever we do unto the least of these we do unto you and in giving to us Lord they are giving to You. As they seek to bless us I pray that you would prove Yourself to them a God who will not be outdone. Reward their generous hearts tenfold and may Your name be praised forever more. Amen. 

...and to him who has no might...Isaiah 40:29

It’s as if God, in those eight months of struggling to trust His leading and to release the grip we had on our plans, was whispering, “Will you follow me no matter the road?”  We had no idea what answering “yes” to that question would mean – how we would taste the mingling of joy and pain – the light of Jesus’ presence in the midst of our darkest days.

Months after choosing to trust Him to grow our family when He saw fit, God graciously gave us our first child and allowed us to experience the joy of the life His hand had created.  Naturally, our hearts were extatic and we quickly began planning life’s changes that would take place in the coming months.  Weeks passed and one afternoon at a routine doctors appointment we were given the news that every parent prays they will be spared – we had lost our first child.  Our well-laid plans had once again been interrupted by our Faithful Shepherd’s voice – will you follow me?  Over the next few months we grieved together and called on Him, our Strength, allowing the Healer to do what only He can.  After several months, God provided another short and sweet life when He gave us our second child.  Having experienced loss again, our hearts hurt deep, and the confusion was overwhelming.  In the midst of our grief, His Word met us, as water to a thirsty soul.

Why do you say, O Jacob,
    

and speak, O Israel,


“My way is hidden from the Lord,
    

and my right is disregarded by my God”?

Have you not known? Have you not heard?


The Lord is the everlasting God,
    

the Creator of the ends of the earth.


He does not faint or grow weary;
   

 his understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,
    

and to him who has no might he increases strength.

Isaiah 40:27-29

Having lost two lives, the pain at times seemed crippling.  But in His faithfulness, our God came near to us – in the middle of the night when grief seemed to take our breath away, with our face to the floor crying out to our Rescuer, alone in the car desperate for His peace.  Every time – He was there.  And His question…no matter the road?