A number of Biblical persons are listed in Hebrews 11 as living their
lives in such a way that their decisions were based upon a promise they
received from God. They lived by faith.
We are in such a spot at this time and request the prayers of those who would carry this burden with us.
The morning we picked up Josiah from the CPS office, the subject scripture of my devotions was:
The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he
had spoken. — GEN. 21:1. I could have replaced the word "Sarah" with
"Elizabeth." What a blessing that was to me. In July 2012 I had received
a promise from God we would have children. I didn't know how, I didn't
know when, but we would have them. On April 24th the promise was coming
to fruition.
Another scripture in the devotional was:
Numbers 23:19: God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of
man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or
hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
I studied this scripture out a bit and read the whole account (Balaam
& Balak) and the 20th verse stood out to me: "Behold, I have
received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse
it."
So, why do we need prayer? Man is trying to reverse it!
I have to confess that I am somewhat hesitant to put this information
out there as no doubt it will generate many questions, fear,
frustration, and anger. But, please know God has given me a confidence
He has a plan in all of this and that Josiah is our son. The above
scriptures and a few others and the grace of God are my help in time of
need when these feelings start to come upon me. I told Josh that I feel
like if I talk about this too much it is a way for faithlessness to
creep in. So, I kindly ask for your imaginations not to wander and
wonder too much. :)
Josiah was taken from a foster home where his older brother had been
adopted by the couple. He was placed with us with the intention of us
adopting him. The couple is an elderly couple and, reasons that will not
be disclosed, the older brother was also taken into custody about a
week after we got Josiah. We were asked to take the older brother but we
declined. There were some issues we were not prepared to handle and we
felt some behaviors Josiah was displaying were those he was mimicking of
the older brother. We did not want to lose the gains we had made. Also,
the older brother is not legally free for adoption. Taking him into our
home would put us in a foster care situation, something we do not feel
led to do.
Prayer request #1: we want to be clear on what God would have us to do
concerning Josiah's older brother. We don't want to be prejudiced in our
decision but truly hear what God would have for us to do. As of now,
the answer is no. We don't want to be pressured or scared into taking
him so we need confidence and strength.
This scenario has caused the situation to become sticky. The family is
trying to get the older brother back (this is very normal) but they also
would like to have Josiah back. Technically, Josiah is legally free to
be adopted. This family has had Josiah for a year and no doubt has a
measure of love for him. He is quite the lovable guy. :)
However, CPS has a policy that it's best for siblings to remain together, so in a
sense the family has the backing of CPS. Josiah's personal workers
agree he should be with us, but at this point the party that holds more
weight is CPS. That's in the eyes of the law.
Jesus told Jairus "Be not afraid; only believe." If fear and dread is creeping upon you now, please, quote that scripture!
Prayer request #2: the minds and hearts of the family and CPS would
change - especially by June 13th!! There is a status hearing that day
that will determine how this case moves forward. I guess I don't want to
go into all of the scenarios that could happen at that point as I don't
want to cause a bunch of fears (and partly I don't want to deal with
all the questions it may cause when we don't know what will happen) but
we do ask for your prayers.
I've come to truly appreciate the prayers of those who want to get ahold
of God on our behalf. It has brought other serious cases to my mind
that I had let fall to the side. People depend upon other's prayers.
The Shunammite woman in 1 Kings 4 gained a son and then he died. Her
response to those who asked how her family was as she was on her way to
Elisha was, "It is well." Her son was restored to life so in the end
she had what she started with: her son. I am confident that her faith in
God was increased that day! As we draw closer to God through this
process I am confident our faith will be increased.
I also want to state that this process we are going through is NOT the
normal circumstances of adopting through the foster care system. It
seems to be the happenings of fostering and then adopting, but not
waiting for a child to be legally free and then adopting them. I don't
want to discourage those who are considering adopting through these
means. God has a plan through this and we are willing to learn, grow,
reap and benefit from this trial of faith. Didn't God say "all things
work together for good to them that love God...?" (He did - Romans
8:28). :)
We covet your prayers.
