It Is Easy To Forget

I believe in the power of prayer. That is one reason why I am quick to ask people to pray for all kinds of things. It is easy to think of things to ask people to pray for. Even when God’s answer is no, or not yet, God responds to our requests. This past week I was reminded how easy it is to forget to take the time to thank and praise God for all the ways He answers prayer.

It is for that reason that I want to take some blog space to honor and praise God for some of our answered prayers. I am thankful that He has brought us this far in the adoption process. I am amazed that we are where we are in the process, I sometimes can't believe we are waiting for a court date . I sometimes think that I might actually have gained a half-of a smidgen more of patience than I did before we began adoptwaiting. I am thankful for the support and encouragement of our family and friends, it has been priceless.

We prayed that my fingerprints would be readable and not need to be re-done. I did not have to have my fingerprints redone, what an answer to prayer. When Jeff and I were working on our dossier we were getting some of our final paperwork notarized because we wanted our dossier to go to Ethiopia as soon as we had our I-171.  I never prayed for paper as much as I did when we were working on our dossier. We had our I-171 verification form signed and notarized before we received our I-171 form. I thought I was being so on top of it. When we met with our adoption worker, she asked me why we signed and dated it because it had to match the date on our I-171 form. I started to panic, I thought it will take days to get the new form notarized and sent to our adoption worker. We had met between her office and our home. There was nowhere to print a new form. But as we looked at our notarized form and our I-171 form, the dates matched! We had our form signed and notarized on the day our I-171 was issued! Only God can orchestrate such details. Of course there was another form we filled out wrong. We needed a new one. I prayed that the Starbucks we were having our meeting at let me use their computer to print a new form. Stores do not usually want their patrons to do such things. However, this Starbucks did and I was able to print a new form so we could re-sign the necessary form. We left our completed dossier with our adoption worker that day. What an answer to prayer.

We met a couple that lives in our town that adopted a 6 year old girl who was on a waiting child list, our boys were waiting children. This couple had been praying to meet someone who was adopting from Ethiopia that they could support and encourage through the process they had just completed. We had been praying to meet someone who had adopted from Ethiopia who lived close to us. When we went to our next adoption group meeting, we met this couple. What an answer to prayer for both of us.

I participate on an Ethiopian adoption forum. As a group we have been praying for families who were waiting for embassy dates who had them and are now home with their children. We have prayed for families: to receive referrals, to get submitted to get assigned a court date, and that they would have all the correct paperwork so they would pass court their court date. It is amazing to think of the many prayers we have seen answered. 

These are just a smidgen of thanks and praise for the answered prayers that I have witnessed as we have moved forward in our adoption. I would love to hear how God has answered your prayers.  Please comment and share how God has answered your prayers. If you are unable to comment publicly please email me and share.

I am so thankful for the many ways that God has answered prayer. But I am also keenly aware of the requests that not yet answered. I found encouragement from this post from Streams in the Desert as I continue to wait on God for some of our prayer requests. Hopefully, you will too.

Journey or Destination?

I think the movie Click with Adam Sandler has a whole new meaning for me now. If you have not seen the movie Adams character receives a remote control that can rewind, pause and fast-forward his life. At first it seems cool, he fast-forwards through the things he does not like. He figures out that while he was skipping the parts he did not like he was actually missing out on his life.

I had an ah-ha moment just like that charterer. I have come to the same realization about adoption or adoptwaiting as I like to call it. I have been viewing adoption as a one-time event you show up for. You adopt children they come to their new home and you are their forever family; the end. I am quite certain I overlooked the fact that adoption, like many things in life is a process. The waiting, the paperwork, the training, more waiting, more paperwork, the home-study, the appointments to get more paperwork, more waiting, reading books, learning about another culture, mailing things, re-doing paper work, re-mailing, more waiting, appointments with different people to review paperwork, more waiting, meeting other families who have adopted. Did I mention paperwork and waiting? I realized that in just focusing on the end result of adoption I was missing the journey.

It is the journey that people remember. People remember the destination, but often they remember the process to get to the destination. When I think about mission trips, looking for a job, my wedding, even Christmas; I remember the journey to get there as much if not more than the “there” I was trying to get to.

Like in Click if I rush through the parts I don’t like in my life I am missing out on my life. I think it happens all the time. We say things like when I: finish school, get a new job, raise my kids, lose 10 pounds, get married whatever it might be then I will live my life. However, it is our life we missing if we do that. I knew this. I have always been a fan of not waiting to live to my life. Clearly, I forgot the same applies if I rush through my life. If I am so focused on the end, I miss the getting there part of my life.

In Click he fast-forwards through the parts he did not like. Sometimes I don’t fast-forward through the parts I don’t like I just complain about it. I thought this option was better because after all I am not skipping anything. I have learned that complaining can keep me from seeing the blessings that are happening even during the parts I don’t like.

It is with a new perspective that I view our adoptwaiting.  I certainly don’t want to miss out on a single moment of the process. Does this mean I won’t want to rush ahead and be done yesterday? Does this mean I won’t complain? Will I stop calling it adoptwaiting?  Probably not. I have always said that waiting is a gift, a complicated gift, but a gift nonetheless. Remembering that adoption is a journey not just a destination is another tool in my belt that hopefully, will help me to live out what I keep saying I believe.

Ready Yet?

I seem to be a person who learns things the hard way. What I like to call the two by four method. What I mean by that is that much like those V-8 commercials, I have to be smacked in the head, sometimes, before I get what God may be trying to teach me.

I had one of those smack in the head moments this week as we learned about the changes in our adoptwaiting program. These are good and necessary changes. As they begin to implement these changes it makes the time line of when we will get a court date and then an embassy date a bit farther out. As with any change it takes time and there are many unknowns because it simply has not been done like this before.

I, the still in recovery control freak, was certain that if I could just learn enough about the upcoming changes that I could have a time line. Because I still believed that if I could gather enough information I could have some idea what, was happening and when. Knowing this would of course give me the control I so desperately sought.  But as I sought the answers to my questions they were met with we don’t know yet and it’s too early to tell. 

As I got the final it’s too early to tell response, it was almost as if I could hear the Lord say to me “Are you ready to trust Me, yet?” Before I even got my final it’s to early to tell I knew no one knew the answers to my questions. The question “Are you ready to trust Me yet?” rang in my mind.

In that moment, I had about a million thoughts and just as many emotions. It was then that I knew the only one I could trust was the Lord. I was embarrassed that I did it again. I tried to get the answers I sought on my own. Looking everywhere but to the Lord because I did not like His answer. His answer was, “Trust me” and I wanted to hear concrete things next month. I would have even settled for in three months. Still I was ashamed that I had to get to the place where there was no where else to turn before I was ready to say “Okay Lord I trust you.”

One of the things that I love about the Lord is His grace. The Lord did not say “Are you ready to trust me, yet?” With anger, impatience, or even a why can’t you figure these things our sooner attitude. As much as I joke about learning things by the two by four method that is not how the Lord treats me. He simply asked “Are you ready to trust me and in me alone?”

I was finally able to answer his question with a “Yes!” I am growing comfortable with not knowing, the how, what, and when. That does not mean I don’t have moments of uncomfortableness, because I do.  But it is different because my hope and trust are truly in the Lord. This sets the stage for something awesome to happen. I know, that I know, that I know God can do this. He will bring us through this.

Music For Your Heart

I forget how much music ministers to my heart. I also forget how much I really love music. I especially love to find the lyrics of songs that I like. Many times I am surprised to find out what the lyrics really are. Building 429 has a new song called Listen to the Sound. When I actually found the lyrics it made me like the song even more. I love the where it says: “You’ll never know what faith is until you don’t understand.” That just so reminds how if I could accomplish this adoption on my own, I would not need God and I certainly would not have grown in the ways that He has grown me. I also love where it says “sometimes it takes silence to finally hear his plan” I so resonate with that because at times my prayer life can be filled with me just talking and not taking the time to listen to what God may be trying to say to me.





In an article that got emailed to me was a link to Ginny Owens song If you want me to. I guess it is an older song but I had not heard and really loved the lyrics to this song as well. I so resonate with the words of this song. When she says, “It may not be the path I would have chosen” I smile. I have always joked that I sign-up for many different things than what has happened in my life thus the title; This is Not The Life I Signed-Up For. But the more I grow in my relationship with the Lord the more convinced I become that the life He has blessed me with is; is far richer because of all the things that I did not sign-up for.