ethiopian faith journey
(Follow link to the right 'OUR STORY FROM THE BEGINNING' for more of our story)
“For I know the plans I have for you”, declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11.
God has been writing our story in His book of life – orchestrating details and making connections for our faith journey to Ethiopia for some time. Here is a glimpse of what God has unfolded for us and the journey He has called us to – God has written the story start to finish, but we are just beginning to receive this blessing. He will unfold His journey for us a little bit every day and we are blessed to have you experience the love of Christ for His children with us. There will be a day when we know the whole story and I pray that we can spend eternity with each of you singing praises of His goodness together!
The above verse from Jeremiah goes on to state, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord…” (v. 12-14)
We have called upon God and prayed to Him and He was listening. We sought Him with all our hearts and we found Him calling us to Ethiopia.
After we adopted Eliana, God led us to cross paths with many people who were touched by adoption, considering adoption or knew someone adopting. After seeing the way Eliana’s story touched lives, I (Angie) began giving out our phone number to anyone showing interest, praying that God would use our blessing to touch others for adoption. I received a phone call one day from a woman, Jen (& husband, Larry, also in the process of adopting), who expressed several people had given her my name & phone number, from varying circumstances and she felt that God had placed it on her heart to connect with me. They were using the same agency, All God’s Children International, and they actually lived only 3 miles from us – ‘isn’t that a coincidence’ we commented. We kept in touch and I was blessed by watching God at work through their journey to Ethiopia for their beautiful daughter Aleena. By chance, we actually met in person at the Little League field while watching our boys and we shared the joy of their upcoming travel to Ethiopia in crossing at the ball fields! About 4 weeks ago, Jen shared with me with that Aleena has 2 biological brothers that were later relinquished for adoption. After petitioning the Lord and praying for Aleena’s brothers, they felt God was telling them not to adopt them. She was broken and crying out for these boys and the Lord’s provision for them.
Upon receiving the email, something stirred in my heart…the same quiet knock God gave me when He brought Eliana to us. That day, I knelt at my bedside and prayed for these boys that God would bless and protect them and lead them to the family He had already chosen for them. I prayed that God would break our hearts for these boys if I was hearing the knock from Him and not from within my own selfish desires. Joe and I began to pray for these boys and the families that would be approached about them – ‘Lord…let the people hear your heart for them and bless their precious lives.’ Every family contracted with All God’s Children (AGCI) prayed over the placement of these boys and each one received a ‘no’ from God. When there was one family left to contact, we called AGCI and stated that although we were not currently contracted with them, we were praying over them and felt God calling our hearts to them. At this point, our hearts had been broken for these boys and our confirmation from the Lord would be that He stirred every other waiting family’s hearts to say ‘no’. On November 26, 2007, we received a call from AGCI that these boys had not been placed. Joe and I prayed together once more for these precious lives and received clear calling from God that our sons, Muaz (age 7) and Bereket (3 months) were being saved for us. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
As of Friday, November 30, we are an officially contracted family with All God’s Children International and are pressing forward at mock speed to bring our sons home! Our adoption process in being done in reverse order since normally the home study and paperwork comes first and placement with your child follows. Well – God is working this miracle for us in reverse, so it is a race to catch up and bring them home. Our second confirmation from God that this was His calling for us is that it is also beyond us financially. God is made strong in our weakness and we are about to experience that in all of His fullness. In the next few weeks, we will be watching God make the miracle of approximately $18,000 happen (and then another $20,000 in the next 3-4 months)! In the past, I struggled with making this need public in order to adopt again, but God has shown us His need for these two boys to be safe, loved and growing in Christ. It is about watching an awesome God work a miracle and giving Him the glory for who He is! It is about leading others to Christ by experiencing His love for His children (our boys) lived out to the fullest measure…
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 The Lord is working in powerful ways and we are excited to see Him work a miracle…
"He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young."
Isaiah 40:11
I have always loved the image of Jesus being the shepherd who cares for His flock - taking such caution to protect and nurture each of his precious lambs. As a parent, I have grown to embrace the role of shepherding our children, just as Jesus (my Father) daily shepherds me.
Since bringing the boys home, this is the best way for me describe the nature of our parenting role...we are shepherding each of the precious souls of our 5 little lambs as they (we) transition and adjust and grow together as a family. God has blessed us with so much joy and humble adoration for this family He gifted us with...and when we are challenged by the many individual needs of 5 lambs learning to become one flock - God has been faithful to sustain us. Some days the challenges are great and some days they are small, but each day we feel God's hand shepherding us and giving us the strength to pass that on to our flock.
Our largest challenge is meeting the emotional need of each child individually right now and trying to slow down and control the environmental input to meet their needs versus just allowing life demands to moderate and overload us.
It has been a tough few weeks...one of our 'lambs' has been sick with a rotavirus for over a week now with intermittent stomach pain and symptoms; one 'lamb' broke his arm; one 'lamb' visited the eye specialist; and amidst the activity, we are all just trying to embrace the moments of stillness and roll with the challenges.
"Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me."
Psalm 54:4
Each day when I wake, I ask God to give me the strength, energy, tenderness, love, time, compassion, attention, patience (the list goes on...) in just the exact measure of each of the kids individual needs for that day. God has been faithful to sustain me and surely without His help...I would fail. Some days God's strength in me prevails more than others and each night we pray for God to grow us closer as a family the next day.
I thank God every day for the privilege of shephering this flock He has loaned to us and daily pray for Him to grow us closer as a family and closer to Him for the journey He has set before us...
EPHESIANS 1:3-6 (NLT)
"All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure. So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son."
1 comment:
You have been dealing with a lot. How are YOU feeling?
You are doing a beautiful job raising your children. I love reading your updates.
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