March 10, 2011

• Take Up Our Case

  Our paperwork arrived in Ethiopia on March 3rd. Two days later (TWO DAYS!) we received word that the department that approves adoptions in Ethiopia is decreasing the number of cases they approve each day by 90%. If this is, indeed, what happens and if it is a lasting change, our wait will change from approximately 9 months to at least 3 years. A part of me is in denial. It feels surreal; like a dream I will wake up from and find that everything is normal again. It forced us to ask, “Did we hear wrong?” I held on to my pretty pink Bible and prayed for wisdom, direction, comfort. I prayed for Him to come near. I began in Lamentations. I read through it a few days ago because I felt lead there by the Holy Spirit. Even after reading it, I wasn’t sure why. As I read it again, it made perfect sense why this book has been on my mind.

  Verses such as:

   “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; it is good to wait quietly” Lam. 3:24-26
                                           and
  “You came near when I called you, and you said, “Do not fear. You, Lord, took up my case;
  you redeemed my life.” Lam. 3:57-58

  Then I began flipping through, reading underlined verses throughout my Bible and came to Hebrews where I had underlined several in a row and written beside them these words:

  “9/14/10 The day we sent our application to adopt into our agency.”

  These were the verses I felt God tell me would be my anthem through this process. How appropriate they are now!

  “So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.  For in just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the one who shrinks back. But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.” Heb 4:35-39

  I do not know what our future holds, but Blake and I both feel confident that we have a baby that will come from Ethiopia. There are two words we heard a few nights ago as we prayed for God to speak:

  Persevere and Faithful

  One word speaks of what God expects of us, and one word speaks of what we can expect of God.

  Please pray for us. Please pray for the Ethiopian government. And please pray for the millions and millions of Ethiopian orphans waiting for families.

  • 11:21 am
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