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.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Roller Coasters
Originally this post was going to be named something else. "Patiently Waiting...With Hope" to be exact. The post was going to explain how we still had not heard anything but our friends from the adoption classes had 2 beautiful girls come into their home - 1.5 years old & 5 years old! Sibling girls! I don't think I could have been more excited unless they had come into our home. I told everyone - even strangers! It was as if them receiving two girls let me know once again "It works! It really, really works!"
God had something else planned.
Genesis 21:1 - And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
For those of you who like to read the end of the book because you simply cannot wait to see how it all turns out and then you go back to read the details, here's the ending: we have a fun, energetic, loving 20 month old in our home, Josiah.
And now for the details! On Thursday, April 17th, I was at a friend's house going over Norwex products in detail. My phone rang but I didn't recognize the number and plus it would have been slightly rude to answer in the middle of my presentation. After leaving her house I listened to the voicemail: it was Jenn, our adoption specialist! Our file had been selected to possibly adopt a 6 month old baby boy, Jesse! She wanted to know if we wanted to be represented? Of course we did!! We were supposed to hear the next day if we could continue to move forward and we would receive the paperwork so we could fill out a Response Form. The purpose of the form: why we would be the best fit for Jesse!
On Friday we heard nothing. Saturday, I was a mess. My mind was in a whirl on reasons why we had not received any information. I will have to state none of the reasons were positive. By Sunday, I had had to let things go, but I was still very anxious. Finally, on Monday at 8:00 am Jenn called to let us know she was sending us Jesse's information and that the meeting for Jesse would be on Tuesday! We filled out the response form and sent it back to Jenn and then waited some more.
Josh took Tuesday off, for which I was grateful. I think he was worried about me if we didn't get picked, especially after my difficult time on Saturday. I felt a little weird going into work and told my coworkers if I received a phone call they could either find me on the ceiling with excitement or on the ground crying my eyes out. I planned to leave for lunch early so I could be home when Jenn called; as it was she called before I left work with news that there was no news. The case hadn't been decided.
So, I waited and prayed while I was at home. As I was praying I had a great peace come over me. The situation would be how God would want it to be. Jenn called back while I was at home saying she had good news and bad news. The bad news we weren't selected for Jesse, but we had been picked to be represented for an 18 month old little boy named Josiah. The meeting for him would be Thursday (this was Thursday April 24th) and because it was an emergency situation he would be going home with whatever family was picked on Thursday. It's quite amazing, and I'm thankful for the time of prayer I had before Jenn called me back. I truly was not one bit emotional about not being picked to parent Jesse. As it turned out, the foster family he was with decided to keep him.
I started to fill out the Response Form for Josiah based on what I had learned from Jenn over the phone and it was a good thing I started! I found out Wednesday morning the meeting had been moved to Wednesday afternoon, but there would still be a move in date on Thursday! I went home early again to have a quiet place to fill out the Response Form.
On Wednesday afternoon I was at a friend's house to drop off some garage sale items. While I was outside my phone rang. It was Jenn. We were selected!!!! My heart is beating fast now, just thinking about that wonderful moment. I will spare you all the minute details, but it was a very exciting and busy evening of shopping, meeting my sister in law to pick up a crib and then dropping into bed exhausted. We would be picking up Josiah the next day at 10:15 am.
I love the story of picking up Josiah. But before I get to that, see the verse above in Genesis 21:1. Every morning I read a devotional that has a compilation of verses that surround a topic. It's not a women's devotional and it was written in the 1800's! That verse was the topic verse. All I could think of was "wow!"
We got to the DES office and waited for Jenn who walked and signed us in. We were then ushered into a meeting room that had half the lights on/half of the lights off. A woman (Josiah's caseworker's supervisor) was sitting at the conference table and introductions were made. It seemed like forever and people coming back and forth before Josiah was finally brought in. Beforehand Josh and I had talked about what he would look like, but we had NO IDEA!! When he came in wearing a cute little overall set, brown eyes and light brown hair I couldn't help but think how scared and unsure he seemed. I reached out to rub his arm and his caseworker handed him to me. He struggled to get away!! I bounced him, he squirmed more. I gave him a goldfish, he threw it across the room. He did NOT want to be in my arms. After a minute or two of struggling, the supervisor suggested "why don't you give him to daddy." I handed Josiah over to Josh and there was INSTANT calmness!! It was amazing. That made my heart so happy. I think it somewhat embarrassed Josh and I'm sure he felt bad for me, but I knew in time Josiah would come around. :) The best part was when I pulled out a small blanket with a puppy head that Caleb (our nephew) had picked out for Josiah. Josiah's face lit up with a cute smile and when I had the puppy "get him" then he broke out into the cutest giggle! Oh, he was SO cute. He still sleeps with his puppy! Thank you Caleb!
He's been in our home over a month now and it seems he gets sweeter and sweeter. The next post will describe a prayer request we have regarding his adoption and the blessing and confidence God has given to me in this case.
God had something else planned.
Genesis 21:1 - And the LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did unto Sarah as he had spoken.
For those of you who like to read the end of the book because you simply cannot wait to see how it all turns out and then you go back to read the details, here's the ending: we have a fun, energetic, loving 20 month old in our home, Josiah.
And now for the details! On Thursday, April 17th, I was at a friend's house going over Norwex products in detail. My phone rang but I didn't recognize the number and plus it would have been slightly rude to answer in the middle of my presentation. After leaving her house I listened to the voicemail: it was Jenn, our adoption specialist! Our file had been selected to possibly adopt a 6 month old baby boy, Jesse! She wanted to know if we wanted to be represented? Of course we did!! We were supposed to hear the next day if we could continue to move forward and we would receive the paperwork so we could fill out a Response Form. The purpose of the form: why we would be the best fit for Jesse!
On Friday we heard nothing. Saturday, I was a mess. My mind was in a whirl on reasons why we had not received any information. I will have to state none of the reasons were positive. By Sunday, I had had to let things go, but I was still very anxious. Finally, on Monday at 8:00 am Jenn called to let us know she was sending us Jesse's information and that the meeting for Jesse would be on Tuesday! We filled out the response form and sent it back to Jenn and then waited some more.
Josh took Tuesday off, for which I was grateful. I think he was worried about me if we didn't get picked, especially after my difficult time on Saturday. I felt a little weird going into work and told my coworkers if I received a phone call they could either find me on the ceiling with excitement or on the ground crying my eyes out. I planned to leave for lunch early so I could be home when Jenn called; as it was she called before I left work with news that there was no news. The case hadn't been decided.
So, I waited and prayed while I was at home. As I was praying I had a great peace come over me. The situation would be how God would want it to be. Jenn called back while I was at home saying she had good news and bad news. The bad news we weren't selected for Jesse, but we had been picked to be represented for an 18 month old little boy named Josiah. The meeting for him would be Thursday (this was Thursday April 24th) and because it was an emergency situation he would be going home with whatever family was picked on Thursday. It's quite amazing, and I'm thankful for the time of prayer I had before Jenn called me back. I truly was not one bit emotional about not being picked to parent Jesse. As it turned out, the foster family he was with decided to keep him.
I started to fill out the Response Form for Josiah based on what I had learned from Jenn over the phone and it was a good thing I started! I found out Wednesday morning the meeting had been moved to Wednesday afternoon, but there would still be a move in date on Thursday! I went home early again to have a quiet place to fill out the Response Form.
On Wednesday afternoon I was at a friend's house to drop off some garage sale items. While I was outside my phone rang. It was Jenn. We were selected!!!! My heart is beating fast now, just thinking about that wonderful moment. I will spare you all the minute details, but it was a very exciting and busy evening of shopping, meeting my sister in law to pick up a crib and then dropping into bed exhausted. We would be picking up Josiah the next day at 10:15 am.
I love the story of picking up Josiah. But before I get to that, see the verse above in Genesis 21:1. Every morning I read a devotional that has a compilation of verses that surround a topic. It's not a women's devotional and it was written in the 1800's! That verse was the topic verse. All I could think of was "wow!"
We got to the DES office and waited for Jenn who walked and signed us in. We were then ushered into a meeting room that had half the lights on/half of the lights off. A woman (Josiah's caseworker's supervisor) was sitting at the conference table and introductions were made. It seemed like forever and people coming back and forth before Josiah was finally brought in. Beforehand Josh and I had talked about what he would look like, but we had NO IDEA!! When he came in wearing a cute little overall set, brown eyes and light brown hair I couldn't help but think how scared and unsure he seemed. I reached out to rub his arm and his caseworker handed him to me. He struggled to get away!! I bounced him, he squirmed more. I gave him a goldfish, he threw it across the room. He did NOT want to be in my arms. After a minute or two of struggling, the supervisor suggested "why don't you give him to daddy." I handed Josiah over to Josh and there was INSTANT calmness!! It was amazing. That made my heart so happy. I think it somewhat embarrassed Josh and I'm sure he felt bad for me, but I knew in time Josiah would come around. :) The best part was when I pulled out a small blanket with a puppy head that Caleb (our nephew) had picked out for Josiah. Josiah's face lit up with a cute smile and when I had the puppy "get him" then he broke out into the cutest giggle! Oh, he was SO cute. He still sleeps with his puppy! Thank you Caleb!
He's been in our home over a month now and it seems he gets sweeter and sweeter. The next post will describe a prayer request we have regarding his adoption and the blessing and confidence God has given to me in this case.
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