Since before we were married, we knew we would adopt "someday." Adoption
is such a scary thing; it is easy to put it off not knowing what the process
will be like. There had been times that I looked into adoption, researched
various agencies, etc, but never really felt God's leading. However, three
weeks ago something cool happened! This is what I like to call our "God
speaking" week. Over the last few years we had thrown around different
countries we thought we might adopt from someday, a few being Ethiopia, Congo,
and Haiti, but never Uganda.
On Monday, I'm not even sure how or why (other than the Holy Spirit’s
leading), I felt compelled to research Uganda. I almost felt this immediate
urgency towards Uganda. I came across an adoption agency and sent the link to
Spencer, and left it at that. I decided that if this is really God's calling;
then Spencer will feel it too. Well, the week went on without really talking to
Spencer about it. During that week I had someone ask me if I had ever looked
into international adoption and the cost to finance it. I thought to
myself...okay God what’s this about? A few days later, we received a letter
from our Operation Christmas child...she is from Africa about 400 miles from
Uganda, coincidence? I thought again to myself...okay God, I’m listening! A few
days later, on Sunday, we commissioned our pastor and his wife for their trip
to Uganda. At this point, God not only had my full attention, but I was
convinced this was God speaking…calling us to adopt. Oh wait, I still hadn’t talked
to Spencer about it. What did he think? Was God speaking to him too?
Some would say it’s just coincidence that all of this happened within a week’s
time, and to them I would say: I don’t believe in coincidence, I believe in God’s
timing. This is God speaking…
After church I found out that he had been feeling the same way, he had been
feeling a pressing from God that this is something we need to do, and the time
is now! Scared and unsure of how we would finance an adoption, unsure if we
would even be accepted, and intimidated at the thought of entering into
parenthood, we decided to send in the application and leave the rest up to God.
We figured with all of our school loan debt, it was very unlikely we would be
accepted anyway. Our prayer was that if this wasn’t God’s timing our application
would be rejected, but if it was God’s timing we knew we would have to step out
in faith and trust that God would provide the finances for the adoption.
Just a few days after sending in the application I received an email titled “Welcome
to Our Program!” Wow! I felt a whole new set of emotions: scared, anxious,
nervous, excited, unsure. And then these doubts entered my mind, I thought how
in the world are we going to afford this? This whole process is scary,
exciting, unsure and every other emotion, but God continually speaks peace and
re-assurance to me. I felt God speaking to me this morning during church as
Pastor Dan preached on compassion. He referenced this verse in 1 John 3:17-18:
"If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has
no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not
love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."
So where are we now? We are stepping out in faith, in complete surrender to God;
trusting that if this truly is His plan, He will provide the finances. He will
make a way. Our great God can do ALL things! And if this isn’t God’s timing, we
trust that he will close the door.
We know we can’t do this alone. We will continually lean on the support of
our family, our friends, our church, and ultimately our God. A saying goes “it
takes a village to raise a child” we will count on our “village” to help us through
this. We know that not everyone will be supportive of us; in fact we know some
of you will question why we would even do this in the first place. But for
those of you who will support us, we can’t thank you enough, and we’ll need as
many of you as we can get. A village can never be too big, well at least our
village can never be too big.
J
“Being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it
on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6
-Jenny
“If
Wowee! Count us in! Your mom told me just yesterday, Spencer. As you might guess from two people who have gone through all those emotions five times, we are very excited to know you are starting this journey. Of course we share your convictions and praise God for your faithfulness to listen to His leading.
ReplyDeleteYou can be sure your blog is now added to my "favorites", as we're excited to see how God leads. We know there will be many miracles and answered prayers, longings, anxious moments, frustrations over international paperwork, and a new variety of opportunities to wait on God and His timing.
Thanks for sharing your news in this form so we can "watch" your journey of faith in building your family and answering God's call.
We know the paperwork will differ between countries and changes surely will have been made since we've done ours (seems governments like to do that a lot), but if there's any way we can encourage you during your process, please don't hesitate to ask.
I also know there are grants available from different sources. Some people do fund-raisers of various kinds. We just know that God never asks us to do anything He doesn't equip us for, or provide the needed resources for. Why would He do that? How's would that even work, if He didn't give us what we needed to "do the job"? It very often stretches our faith, as we wait to see how He will provide and lead, but if it's to be, you will certainly have what's needed to accomplish this.
We pray that God will give peace all along the way.
Nancy and Gus
It is certainly exciting and mind boggling to think about all this! I am sure to be one of the main people praying for any grandkids we may have on the other side of the planet. By definition, any child that is available for adoption has gone or is going through some tough times....hard for a granny to imagine/accept!
ReplyDeleteYesterday I heard a good slogan, "When God is magnified, fear is gone!" We will have to keep our eyes and our minds on our LARGE GOD....which is what we want to do anyway.
On the journey with you and in it for the long haul,
Mom (Geri)....Grandma???? (ok...THAT is just weird!)
Spencer and Jenny we are so excited for you, and all that God has in store. What excites me most is just hearing you both wanting to hear the voice of the Lord and being sensitive to the Spirit's leading in your life together. No doubt, God is knitting together something wonderful here. I love thinking about the two of you and this child who is going to have a deeper experience of the Father's love because of how you guys are stepping out in faith, and walking with Jesus. We love you guys! - Tony and Laurie
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