Lessons at the Grocery Store

So I have had conversations with lots of parents about how their kids teach them alot about God.  Well, today I had one of those lessons in the grocery store.  My sweet little girl wanted to get me a candy bar (this is a common occurance - not sure why she wants to do this, I think part of it is living vicariously through me since she can't eat them due to allergies).  I said, "no, we aren't getting anything else today"  (she had already asked for gum and multiple items at the check out line so my patience was already running low).  She started to fuss and complain and whine.  I asked her to please stop fussing.  She then said, "I was just trying to make you happy", to which I replied "what would make me happy is if you would obey and stop fussing."

I replayed the event with her at home and told her that what she didn't understand is that what makes Mommy happy is obedience, not candy bars.  Mommy does like candy bars but they are not what make me happy.  If you want to make Mommy happy all you need to do is obey and not complain and whine at me.  

Does this remind you of a Bible story?  It did me!  I pictured Saul talking to Samuel.  He was saying to Samuel but I gave God all of these sacrifices.....and Samuel told him that God doesn't want your sacrifices, He wants your obedience.  Now, God did like sacrifices and he did require them, however, what was most important to Him was Saul's obedience....not a gift!

You can read the story for yourself in 1 Samuel 15

Here is verse 22:

But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams."

So, this is a good reminder to all of us that God desires our obedience more than anything else we could offer to Him!

My sweet little girl making a silly face!  :)

Tomorrow

I am meeting with the birthmother and the social worker tomorrow for lunch.  Pray that it all goes well.  The birthmother is still very set on adoption but is nervous about how she will feel afterwards.  I think our social worker or an adoption counselor will be able to help her know how she will feel and know how to deal with those feelings.  Not really sure what we are doing at the meeting tomorrow.  So, I'll update you later.

Adoption # 3 Bible Verse

With all of our adoptions we have had  a special Bible verse that was meaningful to us at the time of the adoption.

Hannah's verse is:
Ephesians 3:20-12
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever!  Amen."
Those of you who know her story know this is very fitting.

Benjamin's verse is:
1 Samuel 1:27
"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him."
If you know Benjamin's story this is a very fitting verse!

So I was wondering if there would be a special verse for adoption #3.  God gave me the verse this week through conversations that I had with the birthmother.  She mentioned the verses that her pastor had told her to read, Prov. 3:5-6.  I told her those were good verses and we discussed them for a little while.  The next day Daniel answered some questions she had e-mailed him (dealing with discipline, sports, etc.) and he answered her and then we didn't hear back.  I got nervous fearing she didn't like his answers about discipline or something else.  However, I had a conversation with her later that night and she said she was not bothered by the e-mail at all, in fact it was an answer to her prayers.  She has not been able to explain how it answered her prayers but she continued to talk on how she really felt adoption was the best thing for the baby and once again brought up Prov. 3:5-6 and mentioned that God was directing her paths.

I read that chapter of Proverbs that night and was thinking on the verses and on our current situation.  I started thinking how this adoption I'm really having to rely on God for EVERYTHING!!!  We feel like He led us to where we are and we feel like we are where He wants us to be.  However, we don't know the ending yet.  We aren't sure why we are here.  She needs lots of support and love and we are offering that to her.  We hope it ends in a baby but a lot could happen in 6 months.  Right now all we know is that God wants us here to minister to her and from there we have to trust Him.  It is going to be a long 6 months waiting to see how this all ends!  But I was reminded that no matter what happens I need to be reminded to trust God.

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understandings.  In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths."  Prov. 3:5-6

No matter if the baby being born in December is ours our not, this is the verse for baby #3 because we have  no idea what God has in store.  We just have to trust Him with all our hearts, and not lean on our own understandings (and not allow fear and doubts to creep in), and we have to trust that He will direct our paths.

Adoption update

Here is where we are currently in our adoption.....

We met with a birthmother last Tuesday.  She is about 3 months along and due in December.  She wants to meet with us again and we were supposed to meet with her on Tuesday but the social worker had to cancel.  She seems pretty set on adoption but is really wanting to make sure we are an okay family to place the baby with.  She said she has some more questions for us.  I've actually been e-mailing her back and forth since Tuesday.

We are excited about the possibility.  We know God brought us to her and we know that He wants us to minister to her in any way we can.  We went to the meeting on Tuesday not knowing if any of this would result in us bringing home a baby but we both felt a peace about that.  We really feel like God wants us to care for her and help her in any way we can.  We are not sure if she is a Christian or not but we hope that we can share God's love to her and when opportunity arises to share the Gospel.  She has a lot going on in her life right now and needs lots of support.

So, here is how you can pray:

• Pray for her and her decision to place the baby for adoption.  Pray that God will give her guidance and wisdom, and comfort as she moves forward with an adoption plan
• Pray for her as she tells her husband about the pregnancy and the adoption plan.  He does not know at this point.  This makes it a tad bit more scary for us not know whether he will support an adoption plan.  
• Pray that God will give me peace as I have a long 6 months to wait and see what He will do!  I know He is in control but fears can rise up!  I fear that we can go the whole 6 months and it fall through and then we will have to wait again.  But, if that is the path God wants us to go, we know He will lead us through it!  Hopefully, in Dec. we will be bringing home a baby!

Reason for the confidentiality of the blog now.....

I know it is more of a pain for you to have to sign in to view the blog.  However, for the privacy of the birthmom and us I have set this up.  We found out about her through a minister we know.  She knows that my Dad is a minister and his church.  So, it would be easy for her to find my blog through my Dad's blogs.  If I want to be able to share my thoughts on adoption and be open with you guys I need to be able to know she will not read it.  Not because I will say anything negative about her.  I just don't want her feeling uncomfortable for any reason.  She lives close to us and so you never know who knows her or has seen her or met her.  All of these reasons make me want to make this more confidential than our other two adoptions.

Limited Use

Hey Guys,

Not sure who all reads my blog.....

So, I'm about to change this blog to "restricted" where you have to have a username and password to log on. I would love to keep all of you up to date on our adoption process so please comment on this post if you want to be able to log in to read. I will need your e-mail address so I can e-mail you the login information.

Thanks!

Christy