December 21, 2013
Its strange to be back at this place, typing a blog post
again. It has been so long. But I thought this might be the easiest
way to share with everyone about how God is moving in our lives and
family.
About a year ago, we shared with our family how we felt the
Lord was working in our hearts and leading us on a journey to adoption. We didn’t know which direction the Lord
would lead us, but we felt his nudging and knew we needed to be obedient and
start learning what our options were for adoption.
"God destined us for adoption as His children through Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will" Ephesians 1:5
We prayed for awhile about 2 children vs one. Could we handle it? It wasn’t part of our plan. But God often doesn’t work according to
our plans. In July we met the kids
for the first time at the park. I
was a bottle of nerves. Everyone
played great together and we discovered a lot of fun connections like A and
Raelyn having the same middle name, and A and Brenna sharing a birthday.
Garret, Raelyn, Brenna and Jori have been very much a part
of this journey with Dave and I.
They have great big hearts and good questions and concerns. We are very proud of them for opening
their hearts up to growing our family.
After that initial meeting we have been spending most of our
weekends with the kids. We started
out just picking them up for church on Sundays and then spending the day with
them. Then we started keeping them
overnight on the weekends. They
even made a trip to Florida with us to go to one of our favorite spots in
September.
Since these children are already adoptable, DCS wanted to
get them into a home that could be their permanent home. In October we decided that God
might be telling us that our home could be that home, that our family could be
their family. Since the children
attend a different school from the Wid kids, we all thought it would be in the
best interest of the children to have them move schools and transition into our
home as foster children during the Christmas break.
This morning, Dec 21) I picked the kids up at our normal drop off/
pick up spot. But today is
different. I wont be dropping them
back off there Sunday evening. As
I type this, I have so many emotions flooding my head and heart. This is huge. Six kids is a lot of kids. Its chaos at moments and there is fighting and arguing, but
there are also moments of great joy and healing. Our God is a God of healing. He makes beautiful things from dust. He is teaching me so much, it is
overwhelming some days. I'm a slow
learner though and I have hard days and question his plan and his power. He keeps telling me, “I’ve got this,
I’ve got YOU, TRUST ME”.
We ask that you will pray for us and with us as the Lord
shapes our hearts to care for and love two more of HIS children. That we can show them HIS love, the love
that was so perfect that he sent his son to earth. As we celebrate Christmas, we remember his great love for
us. His perfect love that drives
out fears and makes things new.
“When God leads or prompts us to do something small, we will
be able to do it if we’re willing.
But sometimes God calls us to do something big that we feel we cant do
in our own strength-either it is beyond our ability or beyond our natural human
desire. It is not something we can
strategize and manipulate into being in and of ourselves. It can only happen by God’s divine
intervention. The beauty of doing
things beyond ourselves is that we will know it was by Gods doing and His
alone. And to Him we give all the
Glory.” – Lysa Terkeurst
From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!
