Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The Perfect Gift!!

When you start a journey that God has called you on you can plan all you want, but in the end it is His road you are following and not your own. When we began this adoption journey to Ethiopia our intention was to bring one more child onto our ark of love. God spoke to us about taking in an infant and because of the set up of our family a baby seemed to be the best choice. But as time went on God opened our hearts to one of his older children and we were told by our adoption agency about a 10 year old girl in urgent need of a family! She was intended to come with a toddler boy and when we first agreed to our "potential referral" both of these kids were moved to the transition house. As the weeks dragged on no "official referral" came and soon we learned there were complications with the toddler boy's paperwork and he would not be able to be referred out to us. In the meantime we were able to sign papers on E(the 10 year old). She would definitely come into our family! As many more weeks went past no baby referral came. I have to say that since the first time I heard about E I was calm and at peace knowing that God needed her to stay in Ethiopia for a little longer. There are some circumstances that led us to understand this. But then our agency called me with some disturbing information... we were told that E had some medical complications. As a mother my maternal instincts kicked in and I began to pray for a way to get the other referral of a baby soon and get both kids out of Ethiopia before the courts closed for three months from August 7-October7. My sense of urgency began to grow. It was as if God said, "Go Now!!!" Our agency was just as concerned as we were, yet the babies in the transition house were little and would not be available for some time. Then just when we were about to give up on the idea of getting a baby at all God did what only He can do. We got a call from our agency letting us know they had a referral for us of a beautiful seven month old baby girl! She was relinquished and would be considered for an expedited court date!! Although most people including ourselves thought we would be getting a baby boy all our paper work was approved for two kids either gender any age. Our family has been joyfully celebrating this turn of events. Now we will have seven girls and two boys that God in his awesome wisdom has ordained for us to raise to be warriors for His kingdom. So in the end what we thought would be the perfect scenario...one baby (probable a boy) turned out to be God's perfect gift of one baby girl and one lovely 10 year old girl!! Thanks be to God!!!


Now we ask for God's awesome power to move the impossible mountain in front of us to get these children a court date and for that court date to be successful so we can bring E and her sister M home to the safety of their forever family!!

8 comments:

Renee' said...

Wow, that is awesome news! God is THE master at putting all the puzzle pieces together isn't He?! So happy for you guys!!

Jori said...

God is the AWESOMEST!!! Ok ~ don't know if that's a word but ... You know what I mean! Congrats again!
Blessings, Jori

ethiHOPEia said...

Wow! What a beautiful story! May God speed up your process.
Blessings,
Hilary

tisha said...

Congratulations!!! I pray that you'll have a court date asap!! :)
Tisha (yg)

Bethany Taylor said...

We are so excited for you guys! God seems to be doing miracles all around!

Did you write the Adoption Miracle poem on your page? That is absolutely beautiful. It made me tear up knowing our childrens' story.

Apryl said...

What a wonderful surprise!! I pray that all works out quickly and you can get through court and to Ethiopia in record time. I'm sure your head is still spinning with this news! Congratulations!
apryl
btw, kept meaning to leave a comment--did you get the dvd I sent?

Carpenters said...

Congratulations! What a beautiful gift your two newest girls are! I can't wait to see their faces.

With Love,
Penelope

JbarJ Mom said...

Rejoicing with all of you! The precious, sweet note from "E" made me cry. So, so sweet. Praying for that court date to swiftly carry you to the hot African sun. Love and prayers, Kristine (for the Aldrich Family)