Below is the majority of an email I wrote to some fellow travelers on the long and hard road of adoption. Hope it might encourage one or two others on the road.
We are praying for you both!
I know this wait has been long road, filled with trials, filled with questioning and wondering at the plans and purposes of God and His ways.
I have been spending a lot of time in Hebrews 11, 12, and 13 as of late and have been so challenged by the path of faith that the Lord has called many of our Old Testament brothers and sisters to.
God is making you into great parents prior to even having the children in your home. He is refining you for His great and good purposes, to be a light of Christ in a hopeless and dark world.
I do not know what these next 2, 4, 6 months hold (let alone tomorrow) for both you or us, but there are several promises that are growing more and more dear to me in and every day this adoption process continues…
· Hebrews 13: The sure and steady HOPE that ‘Jesus will never leave me nor forsake me’. No matter what comes, he is graciously refining me for his purposes, His glory, and in fact for my good…though often I don’t see it as my good. ‘The Lord is my Helper, I will not fear…what can man do to me’.
· Hebrews 12: The Race of Faith – We all have great need of endurance. Life is hard, trials are many, pain is present, but we can take GREAT hope in that Jesus endured suffering, horrific hostility, crucifixion, to bring me into the household of God, as sons adopted into the Family of the Living God. And that Great Hope, the Hope of the Firm and Steady rock of Jesus Christ, propels us to offer our lives as holy and pleasing sacrifices to God…suffering with Jesus outside the camp (Hebrews 13) and bearing the reproach He endured.
· Hebrews 11: Enduring as Seeing Him who is invisible: Moses endured the anger of the king…because he ‘saw Him who is invisible’. Sarah endured ‘considering Him FAITHFUL, who had promised’. Abraham ‘offered up his only son Isaac believing that God would raise Him from the dead’. Moses ‘wandered’ for 40 years and God equipped Him, prepared Him to lead millions of people.
(I am saying this to myself as I write it) : Be of good courage for our hope is not in governments (they will fail), adoption agencies (they will make mistakes), timelines (they are always changing), or anything other than Our Great God who did not spare His own Son so that we might become His children. Our courage is upon the Firm Foundation, the Sure and Steady Hope, the Immovable Rock in the midst of an earth-shaking Tsunami, The One who is Unshakable, the King of Kings, the One who upholds the world by the Word of His Power, Our Great Salvation, The One who has Made Purification for sins, the One Who is Seated at the Right Hand of The Throne of God, Exact Imprint of God (God Himself) the One who Works all Things together for Good to those who Love Him, to those who are Called according to HIS Purposes, the One who blood has given us access to the Throne of Grace, The One who is Faithful to the End, The One whom Death Could Not Hold, the One who is the Christ, JESUS.
O God, let us remain steadfast under your Great and Precious Promises, let us hold closely to the only firm foundation available, Jesus and His work on the Cross, let us continue to RUN the race, fixing our eyes on You, the author and perfecter of our Faith, let us continue to live as seeing Him who is invisible, let us live for the world to come, let us be found faithful. Equip us O God for everything we need for life and godliness, for every good work You have called us to. For Your Name to be magnified.
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Here is a strengthening blog post from some friends of our who are also adopting from Ethiopia, on the topic of waiting on God.
