Adoption Story...Part Two

 (A continuation of Adoption Story....Part One)



The skill of the architect is seen in the detail of His work... and never in my life, before this,  had I experienced that reality quite like we did in the next several months.

It did little good for us to simply believe that the twins were meant for our family.  It was explained to us by our agency that the Ethiopian government would probably not agree to the placement of only two of the children, and there would be even less of a chance of finding a family, already in process, who would adopt all four. 

The files on the four children were not even completed, all we knew of them was gender and ages. We entered that Easter weekend agreeing, with our agency/social worker, that we would pray and see if God would bring to either of our minds, a family for the two boys.

I mentioned the situation casually to several people we knew and was met with chuckles, blank stares, and my favorite.... "Don't you dare say anything to my husband/wife about this- they'd be all over it".  We gathered prayer support from friends and family but were somewhat guarded with the little info we had.  People were genuinely interested but, clearly, no family had been found.

As beautiful as the details of this story have been to this point...it is this place in the retelling where, no matter how many times I tell it, each time I become more awestruck.  There is a shift in the storyline, the music quiets to a more holy hush as the curtain, once again, opens...I can not even write this without my throat tightening and my eyes pooling. 

I wasn't "Expecting Easter" that morning. It was Sunday morning as usual, just a different order of service.  I don't remember the sermon, or the worship songs at the end.  But I remember taking communion....we walked together as a family up to the table where the bread and wine were served.  We huddled together in a circle as we prayed, thanking God for the sacrifice of His Son, and asking, once again, for His direction and provision.  As we were making our way back to our seats a light bulb went off in my head..."T and Jean!"  I quietly leaned over to Shawn and told him that I felt like God was wanting me to ask them.

We knew T and Jean from church but didn't know them well.  I had enjoyed several brief conversations with Jean about adoption in general.  With both of them having backgrounds in counseling, she had wondered if maybe they would be a good fit to help with the new adoption ministry starting at church.  We knew they had hearts that genuinely wanted to be used by God...but would hardly be considered "close friends".

I chuckle now as I wonder what must have been going through T's mind as I unloaded the "quick version" of the story on him.  The basic gist of it..."Hey, we know of these two boys from Ethiopia that need a family.  They have twin siblings...we will take the twins...I felt God telling me this morning that I should ask you if your family would adopt the boys!"  You know, normal "after church chit chat". : )

It's a memory that brings a chuckle...but a reality that now demands our worship.  It's the inspiration for the title to this blog, because of one simple reason.  They said "yes"! 

Romans 8:11 states that "..the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you".  It's His Spirit in us that gently, and sometimes not so gently, pushes us into our greatest unknowns.  It's His Spirit, working in us, that gives the strength to say "yes" with virtually no time at all to figure things out.  His Spirit, in us, that demands radical obedience, yet accepts our offerings from our trembling hands with perfect gentleness.

They could have said no, but because they didn't, we all experienced Easter that morning...the beginning of new life.  The choosing of sacrificial love...death to ourselves for the sake of four others.  It's a beautiful reality...this day we call Easter... for it is hardly a once a year thing.



(To be continued...)



                                                                     

ONLY TWO MONTHS LATER...IN ETHIOPIA!

Adoption Story... Part One

It was exactly one year ago, the day after Palm Sunday, when God began to reveal the more specific details of our adoption story.  Our official adoption process had begun about eight months prior, consisting of mountains of paperwork, fundraising efforts and long periods of waiting for the much anticipated phone call from our agency...the call to let us know that our new children had been found, if we would choose to accept the referral. We had specified that we were hoping for two girls, somewhere between the ages of 3 and 5, but would be open to consider other possibilities, as we knew full well that God was doing the "choosing"...we would know when it was time.  With four biological sons and two biological daughters already, it seemed that two more girls made the most sense...even the ranks. ( whatever is that supposed to mean?!)

I woke up early on the morning of April 2nd from a dream that still remains clear in my mind to this day.  In it, we received a call from our agency with a "referral" for 4 year old twins.  We were sent pictures of their beautiful Ethiopian faces. I remember their dark eyes shining at us with anticipation, almost as if they were begging to be chosen.  We oo-ed and aw-ed over the perfectness of their smiles as the picture in my mind changed to show their little bodies.  These perfect little children were missing all their fingers and all their toes...

I remember telling Shawn about my dream right after waking up.  We laid there in bed talking about how neat it would be if God would somehow choose to bless us with twins.  Kind of the icing on the cake...and 4 year-olds...how PERFECT! We talked about the strangeness of the fingers and toes part...where in the world did that come from? But dreams are like that much of the time...

The details of the dream lingered in my mind through the remainder of the week.  I shared it with my friends and family, even co-workers at work, and each time I did it was almost as if God was asking me to believe Him for it.  The desire to mother twins was not a new one for me, but it wasn't a "necessary request"...God didn't owe me that desire....that would be "extra".  I would be just as thrilled with 3 and 5 year old siblings... but still, He seemed to desire that I ask. We had not specified that we would take children with disabilities.  Was He asking us to?  We were not really opposed to the idea...just didn't really feel like He had given us that direction.

That Friday evening, Good Friday... I was sitting in my car in the Target parking lot at around 5:30 pm.  As I was getting out, I heard my phone ring, and noticed that it was our agency's number.  My heart would always skip a beat when they called, but since it was after regular business hours I thought maybe I had just pushed a wrong button and accidentally called them.

It was one of our agency's social workers.  She was not the one who normally handled our case and asked if I had a minute to talk. She stated that she realized she was kind of going out on a limb by making this call, but after a previous conversation she had had with me earlier in the week, felt confident that we were totally aware that God was the one adding to our family and that we would trust Him to lead in this conversation as well.  She then started asking questions.

Would we consider taking two boys or did we want at least one of the two to be a girl?  I replied that we were willing to take one boy but, as a family,  had all felt strongly, that at least one of our new children would be a girl.

As soon as the words were out of my mouth I started to doubt.  Really?  Who does that?  Who tells someone they wouldn't take two boys?  Of course we would!  I already had four...what difference did it make if God gave us two more?  I started to justify our reasons to her, simply because saying no seemed so ridiculously selfish.

She then began to tell me the reason for the call.  They had a sibling set of two brothers, 6 and 2, that had recently come in to the orphanage and they were trying to find placement for them. We were the closest family on the waiting list to those ages...most families were waiting for younger children.  My heart sank even deeper as I felt like I had just passed over giving these two precious boys a home...all because I was stuck on a girl.  I started to tell her that we would talk about it and pray about it...thinking to myself that maybe we had heard God incorrectly, but before I could even finish she said there was another part of their file that she had not yet mentioned.

In between these two boys, was a set of....4-year old twins!!  The tears gushed, even before my words could..."Those are my babies!  I know it with everything in me!"  If only it were that simple...

(to be continued....)