God is Waiting

We've waited to have a family for almost 3 1/2 years. We've been waiting to bring home our babies for 20+ months. We were on the actual wait list for almost 10 months. Addise's been waiting for parents in the orphanage for over half her life. Judah's been waiting - fully in transition as a 2 year old - for 4 months.

Not long ago, though, I realized in a whole new way that God is also waiting. He's waiting for Judah and Addise to come into a family. He's waiting for 147 million orphans - all of which he knows by name, knows the number of hairs on their head, knows the number of tears they've cried - to be welcomed into forever families. He's waiting for his people to respond to the call to experience true religion by caring for orphans [James 1:27]. He's waiting to set the lonely into families [Psalm 68:6]. He's waiting for us to follow his lead to not leave children as orphans, but call them "sons" and "daughters" [John 14]. God is waiting for us, too.

God is waiting for our hearts to be healed by heartache, disappointment, loss, and death. God is waiting to restore and redeem and renew that which has been stolen and taken. God is waiting for us to respond to him in the midst of that to experience his new life.

And because I've cried so many time while I've waited, I'm entirely confident that God's cried too. He's cried because he's waiting for children to be loved, welcomed in his name [Matthew 18:5]. He understands my pain, my longing to have my children in my arms. He understands because their his children first. We love Judah and Addise because he's first loved us [1 John 4:19].
This is yet another way that I've grown to understand the heart of God by choosing to adopt. I am immeasurably grateful to know God more through the divine experience of adoption. I am forever changed.

Orphan Sunday - a celebration and only the beginning

You have to see what our church, Newsong did on Orphan Sunday. At the end of the service, you’ll also see a 1-minute video from Brian and I at LAX. We are so privileged to share our journey with our entire church community! We were in Ethiopia, so we missed it. But I was reminded a million times, we were doing Orphan Sunday. AH! It was a day Newsong will remember for a long time. Amazing things were done in the service. Our kids at Newsong from 2 year olds through high school learned about God's heart for orphans and actually did a care project for local kids in foster care. Seeds were planted in our next generation that will last a lifetime! Who knows what God will harvest from those seeds?!?! All day throughout Newsong's hallways stories were told from those doing orphan care. Pictures were posted all over Newsong of those doing orphan care; each picture included the phrase "We are the Village..."

Then, 1 week later Newsong hosted an information meeting for all those who wanted to take a next step toward orphan care. People came who were interested in everything - foster care, domestic adoption, international adoption, supporting those in adoptions, mentoring kids in the system, foster care. It was amazing to see our foyer filled with people who are seriously responding to God's call to care for orphans. It was only the beginning. The best is yet to come...

A Dream :: "Orphan" Becomes Personal

This is a message I got from one of my oldest friends, Laura. We have been friends since 8th grade. Although we've only lived in the same city for 1 year, God's knit our hearts together and bound us together for over half our lives. We were bridesmaids in each other's weddings. She sent me this dream God gave her a couple weeks ago about her 2 daughters. I absolutely LOVE how God personalizes the plight of orphans and vulnerable children for his people...

Kate and Ella were on some adventure which involved catching large sea slugs [don't think that even exists] and all sorts of other mayhem, but Ella was being sneaky and brought one of the sea creatures into the large room that she and Kate were sleeping in. In that room were a bunch of bunk beds lined up. They had nothing in their possession, Kate only had some silly bands on her arm. A woman entered the room where they were sleeping and saw that Ella had disobeyed a rule by bringing in the sea creature [ok strange I know], upon seeing this she kicked Ella and Kate out. At that moment I realized they were orphans...I weep as I write this. I saw the sweet amazing eyes of my Kate and the tender gentle spirit of her big sis, and there they were- all alone in the world. And I woke up.

It was 4:30 this morning and all I could do was run into their room and lay my hands on my 2 oldest girls. In that moment, the plight of orphans went from my head, past my heart, directly into my GUT! I literally felt sick. I realized that in a different place in the world or a different set of circumstances, that could by the life my daughters faced. The image of my sweet little 2yr old, w/ her big brown eyes, all alone in the world, was more than I could handle. And I pray that if they were in that circumstance, someone would scoop them up and love them, someone would choose them, someone would spend whatever money, sacrifice whatever it took, travel any distance to rescue my little loves.

I wonder how God's made adoption personal to you. I LOVE the private conversations I've had with so many readers about how God's expanded your heart toward adoption. Please share. It's so encouraging to hear and see how God's mobilizing his people toward orphan care!