Monday, October 12, 2009

Just Call Me Gideon

Okay, so I know that I should trust God enough not to ask Him to prove that He is speaking to me...but in all honesty, sometimes I just need Him to. This whole adoption process is one of those times. You see, being that I am single and this is not exactly the conventional way of creating a family, I doubted.



But God.



I love that phrase. But God. He allows me to doubt, and joyfully proves Himself to me time and time again. He is so good!



About a year ago I was doubting that it was indeed the Lord guiding me to adopt, so I decided to ask Him for something outrageous. I didn't tell a soul what I had asked for. That way, if He chose to do it, I would know that He was telling me to adopt. Three days ago, IT happened!



Someone sent me a check for $1000!


Just call me Gideon. I put out a fleece--something so irrational and improbable that only God could do it. And He did.



Today I am mailing in my homestudy documents, along with a check for $1000. Isn't He good???

Friday, October 2, 2009

On Top of the Wait List!




I received an e-mail from a Sanyu mom on Monday morning. She had heard that there were some new arrivals at Sanyu and that there was a chance that they were accepting international applications again. Immediately I sent an e-mail, and Wednesday morning received a reply from Barbara, the Director at Sanyu.

She said I would be contacted when a little girl becomes available because I am at the top of the wait list! I'm not exactly sure what this means for me yet, but it has to be good, right?
The Lord has been speaking so clearly to me this past week. Last Wednesday evening Dr. Baloian from Azusa Pacific University was the guest speaker at church. He talked about Exodus 14 and how God's parting of the Red Sea was, in essence, to prove Himself--that the people would KNOW that He is God.
I shared with my parents after service how that had resonated with me. It has been my prayer that the Lord would use this adoption to bring glory to Himself and to be a picture to some of my unbelieving friends of God's love and desire to bring them into His family. A few minutes later, I hopped into my car. The radio was set to the local Christian station, and if the pastor on the radio wasn't preaching on the same chapter!

The following morning I prayed and asked the Lord to confirm that scripture if it was indeed Him speaking to me. I was keenly aware that it was highly unlikely, as I am currently reading through the book of Isaiah and the parting of the Red Sea is back in Exodus. Wouldn't you know that as soon as I opened to the next chapter of Isaiah, though, it began recounting the parting of the Red Sea?!

Sunday morning my mom and sisters all came looking for me in the Toddler class where I was teaching Sunday School. They couldn't wait for me to get to service. We are going through 1 Corinthians on Sunday mornings but--surprise, surprise--the verses we were in that day focused on God's faithfulness to the Israelites as He led them through the Red Sea and the wilderness!! Wow!

So when I got the e-mail on Monday morning, I can't say I was really surprised. But the e-mail on Wednesday took me back a bit. I'm sure I will still need to take a trip out to Uganda to meet the children available and be "approved" by the orphanage, but "top of the wait list" just sounds so wonderful, don't you think?