Adoption and Galatians 5

The past 3 years of life and marriage and trying to have a family have taught me a few things. One of the [many] passages that I've studied, meditated on, leaned into has been Galatians 5.

All along this journey, I've longed for freedom. Freedom from my expectations, pain, time lines, sin, disappointments, and control issues. Galatians 5 has taught me a lot about what God's heart is for us when it comes to freedom and how we find it. In fact, I preached on this chapter at Newsong on July 4th with my friend, Frances.Galatians 5:5 identifies how we find a life of freedom:

But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.

I'm no theologian, but I've learned more about the context and meaning of this passage from a few theologians. Here are some bullet point thoughts...

• Faith + Waiting = Righteousness. Righteousness is gained through faith and waiting. I wish it was gained through comfort and instant gratification, but clearly God's ways are not my ways [for good reasons!].
• In the Greek [original language of the New Testament] the word for FAITH is "pistis". Throughout the New Testament, "pistis" is translated into 3 different words: faith, belief, or trust. Read Galatians 5 three times exchanging those words with each other. It gives it much more depth and profundity.
  
• The goal of our faith, belief, and trust is about bring alignment of my will to God's will. Do I trust him? That's where the rubber meets the road. I want to trust him more. Perhaps that's WHAT he's been desiring to do throughout these past 3 years.
  
• Waiting is God-initiated as we trust in him; he will act. Waiting is a catalyst of sorts to deepen our faith, trust, and belief in God. Of course, it can also cultivate disbelief, mistrust, and doubt, but it's through waiting that our character is revealed and developed.
• Righteousness produces hope. There is a good end to waiting! God wants to instill hope for him - not our desired outcome - into the fibers of our soul. I have found my hope transferring more and more over the past few years from a baby to knowing God, finding myself falling in love with him more and more.
  

His ways are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. Beautiful. God's so cool like that. How gracious he is to us!

This song has been a comfort and director for my waiting. Enjoy...

A Family Affair

This may surprise some of you, but I am a white girl from the Midwest. I like to think of myself as half Puerto Rican [because when 2 become 1 it only makes sense that I'm half Puerto Rican...thanks babe!], half black [mainly because of my love for rap/hip hop and Ethiopia], and half Asian [Korean probably fits me best, but I'm a melting pot of Asian ethnicities...thanks Newsong!]. I know those fractions equal more than "1", but I gotta lot of personality!

My entire extended family is very white [minus my Hispanic husband, a Jamaican-by-culture sister-in-law, an Aussie cousin-in-law, and a Guatemalan cousin-in-law] - born and raised in the corn fields of Central Illinois. I don't even remember knowing anyone with another color or from another culture until late in elementary school when we moved from the small Midwestern town we lived in to Dallas, Texas. Pretty much everyone I knew growing up looked like me, even though I sang "Jesus Loves the Little Children". The "red, yellow, and black" children I sang about in that song were more theoretical than real.
But God's doing a crazy cool thing in my family!!! I'm not sure where it started but loving the little children of the world has caught a hold in the hearts of our family. I have 12 cousins and 2 brothers and the call to care for orphans is taking off!

• My cousin, Erin, and her family are looking to adopt a little girl from China.
• My cousin, Jeff, and his family are adopting a special needs boy from China.
• My cousin, Todd, and his family are adopting a Downs Syndrome little boy from Eastern Europe.
• I know other cousins are sponsoring kids through organizations like World Vision and Compassion International.
• My entire family has been prayerfully and emotionally supportive as we've sought to adopt our 2 kiddos.
  
• A number of my family have financially supported our adoption in ways that have brought head shaking and tears.
  

God is growing our hearts for caring for orphans!!! I never would've imagined our homogeneous family becoming so colorful, but God often does what's beyond our imagination to grow our faith and his Kingdom. Ever so grateful today for my increasingly colorful and diverse family! I am utterly convinced that it will grow us so much as we experience God through orphan care and different cultures.

Excited and proud of the Getz and Neukomm familia today!!! What a fun journey we are on together.

What I Feel the Most...

I wasn't entirely expecting it, but there it is again.

For the past 23 days, I've been over-the-moon excited for Lil' A and Baby T coming into our lives. I've saved their pictures to my phone's home screens, my laptop background, printed some for our fridge and we actually framed 2 of each of them. We are fully in love! They feel like ours already, even though we are very aware that something devastating could happen and our adoption could fall through. We deeply celebrate everyday that what was lost is now found.

What I wasn't entirely expecting what how much grief I would feel for their birth mothers. Overwhelming compassion. Deep sorrow. Soulful mourning. While I have never been able to conceive a child, a woman who was had to give hers up because they wouldn't survive without it. I cannot imagine. Simply cannot imagine that grief of giving up a child you love because of poverty.
I've found myself praying frequently for their birth family. Praying for peace. Praying for healing. Praying for comfort. Praying for restoration. Praying for confirmation that her sacrifice was courageous and right. Praying the Holy Spirit - in ways only he can - will let her know that Brian and I will passionately love their child.

Tonight I was reading my blog roll and found THIS POST. I wept as I read. It's a snapshot into my heart and a prayer I have for our children to someday find some answers for their identity. The reality is that adoption is FILLED with grief and pain, but God - as only God can do - bring beauty from ashes.