God's heart and grace...

It's been about 4-6 weeks now that we've been an active "waiting adoptive family" with our ministry contacts. The waiting is the hard part for sure. I am thankful for God's soveriegnty in knowing that it's in HIS timing that the right baby will present for our family and us for her.

We've been contacted a few times already about potential situations - which is really encouraging to us. Timing, available finances, and the birth-mom's preferences all play a part in whether a situation is a potential match for us or not. But, it's exciting that we are getting phone calls and emails. It is remarkable to us just how large the need is for families to adopt babies. We had no idea that we would hear of so many birth-moms in desperate situations.

I read another article today put out by Focus on the Family's Citizen Magazine on adoption. It identified again the need for adoptive families. Specifically, the writer challenged Christian families and churches to take responsibility for the unwanted/neglected through the miracle of adoption. It's clear that God's heart is for the orphan.

James 1:27 (NIV)
"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..."

Please continue to pray for us as we raise funds and hear from agencies about potential situations. This whole process is quite the emotional roller-coaster. We hear of a situation and are hopeful we're a match (some of the situations are fairly immediate, so we start thinking about travel planning, scheduling, etc...). Then for one reason or another, we find out this isn't the baby for us. This is fine, we rest in God's choice and timing for us and the baby, but it's just a lot of mental planning, prep, and emotional flip-flopping. I believe our experience in foster care helped prepare us for this process. In foster care, we had the surreal experience of the social worker calling and saying "we have a baby for you today." Also, we've learned God's grace in holding loosely to things until they are for certain.

I'm encouraged by the Hillsong song "You'll Come" with these lyrics:

"We are not shaken, we are not moved, we wait upon You Lord"

God will bring all things in His time.