Waiting for Miracles

This is Thom, Jill’s husband, and I wanted to add a quick status update and request for prayer.  It seems that we are always waiting.  It was a year ago two weeks from today that I first started thinking about “special needs” adoption.  We had literally never considered it before.  Pictures speak so eloquently.

Anyway, from the beginning this process seems to have been fraught with setbacks – God teaching us to be content with His timing – and we had another one Wednesday.  Three weeks after we submitted our acceptance paperwork and immigration forms we got an email that a signature had been missed on the i864 form!  AARRGGHH!  I remember the excitement and confusion of that day – I was so scattered trying to get all the forms properly filled out and the “i”s dotted and the “t”s crossed, wanting to avoid any further delays, I must have overlooked a single signature.  Preventable mistakes are the most frustrating.  Why wasn’t I more careful?  Why did it take three weeks for it to be discovered?  Why are all the powers of the universe arrayed against us as we endeavour to provide a home for a single orphan?

But God.

Please pray for our family.  We still have a lot of money to raise in order to travel, and a lot of preparation to complete around our home to get things just right for  Peter’s homecoming.

Please pray for Peter.  He is being introduced to our family through pictures and a video, and the people at the orphanage are starting to call him Peter.  He doesn’t even know what a family is, and doesn’t know what he is lacking, but now he is being told he has a father and a mother and two sisters and a brother.

Please pray that God continues to meet us in the midst of our waiting.  Many of you know even more poignantly than we do the frustration of setbacks and roadblocks.  Thank you for walking this road with us.

Finally, I was reminded of God’s purpose for waiting by a “friend” named Paul David Tripp in his book “A Shelter in the Time of Storm”:

“Waiting on God isn’t about the suspension of meaning and purpose. It’s part of the meaning and purpose that God has brought into my life.  Waiting on God isn’t to be viewed as an obstruction in the way of the plan.  Waiting is an essential part of the plan.”

The “AARRGGHH”s finally give way to joy, and the amount of time from one to the other is securely in the hands of God.  He is infinitely trustworthy.

Jesus Rescued Me From the World's Orphanage

It was March 12, 2010 and we were headed to Bethany's Christian Agency for their introductory meeting.  We had been sent an email about a little boy from Hong Kong with DS that needed a forever family.  He loved music and we are a musical family, we were going.  As I picked my husband up from work he came walking out on the phone with a Social Worker from Bethany.  He dropped into the car and started to weep.  This particular little one had been assigned a family.  As we sat in the car stunned, I thought, "I wonder if this is what a miscarriage feels like."  We were hurting but God met us there.

The next few minutes we cried out to the Lord asking Him if we should even go to the meeting or maybe we just didn't hear from God correctly.  After several pleas, we started the car and moved towards our future.  You see, in that brief moment of tears and uncertainty, God did what only He can do, He pointed us in the direction He wanted us to move in.  We realized in a breath's time that God was stirring our hearts to adopt again. 

(Back Story) Our boy Eliot is the youngest of 6 brothers, 4 in Guatemala and 1 in Lancaster County, PA.  Within a year of bringing Eliot home we realized, but stuffed away, Eliot was meant to be big brother, not the only child he was in our family.  Yes he had 2 big sisters, but soon they would be off to college or getting married or the mission field, and even though they were great play pals and siblings, they were 15 years different in age and interest. 

Our conversation on the way was loaded with what ifs.  When we arrived we were exhausted yet exhilirated.  What was God going to do?  What good thing did He have in store for us?  We listened carefully throughout the meeting. They could've been saying the Pledge of Allegiance for all we knew, because the voice that was sounding the loudest in our ears was God's.  He was calling us to adopt and not just any child, He was filling our hearts with faith to adopt a special needs child.

(Back Story 2)  When we went through the process with Eliot we, at that time, wanted a "normal" child.  We sited our ages and a desire for a male Inglin to carry on the name.  We had no experience with Special needs children and felt terribly ill-equipped.  God was about to show us that in our weakness, He would show Himself strong.

Signed all the necessary paperwork but fear was doing a work in my heart.  One night God woke me.  I found a quiet spot so that I wouldn't be interrupted and I waited for Him to speak.  My Father's voice is one of the most beloved I can hear.  When I hear it, my body relaxes and peace floods my soul.  God gave me the answer that would fuel courage and faith in my heart.

(What He Showed Me) In my mind I saw an orphanage.  There were many beautiful children all lined up who could do all sorts of things.  There was a line of potential parents waving and oohing and ahhing over the children.  But off to the side sat a disgrace of a being.  She was filthy and her odor permeated the place and the orphanage workers shoved her in the corner, in the dark so that she would not ruin the chances of the other children.  A Kingly man entered the building, everyone parted the way for Him for His presence was imposing.  All the children put on their best efforts to gain the man's attention, but His gaze was set on just one child!  The little one in the corner.  The workers argued with the man and tried to restrain Him from getting to her, but He firmly moved them out of the way.  He held out his nail scarred hand to the little girl, she was too weak to grasp it.  As agony washed over her, the Prince said, "Do not weep little one, the Kingdom of Heaven has come for you this day",  Jesus swept up that despised one and saved her, gave her a new name and a new home!  I was adopted on the spot with all my special needs.  He didn't see them, He just saw His child.  God said to me, " my child go and do the same to my special ones."  I got my answer.  I have never looked back. 

I had an improper few of myself and my own adoption and what the real reason for my adoption was.  There was nothing beautiful or commendable in me to recommend me to such a God.  I was dead in my transgressions and Jesus rescued me from the world just like, by God's grace, we are going to do for our little one that we will call Peter.  We don't have to do this!  We don't want any medals!  WE GET TO DO THIS! To the praise and the glory of God!

A Place for Peter

A Place for Peter: Last year about this time, my husband Thom and I were celebrating 20 years of marriage. We went away inbetween snow storms and it will be no surprise to you readers that it snowed while we were away and we got an extra day free. Of course, Thom and I are familiar with these kinds of blessings and we both said, "wonder what God is up to!" We had no idea then that we would be called to adopt a little boy with Down's Syndrome from Hong Kong. March of 2010 had to be the roughest and most confusing of our Christian lives. We had no idea the challenges and the good grace that would pour out on us during this process.

Maybe you can tell that the written way isn't the best for me. I am a storyteller, and face to face or in large groups is always my preferred medium. So please bear with me. "Special Needs? Are you crazy Thommy?" I want to start my posts here tonight with a funny thought I shared with my family yesterday. When Thom and I went through pre-marital counseling, my husband wanted 6 kids! "YIKES," I said, "only one for each hand!" was my response. I now have the distinct impression from God that Thom may just get his way and I am at peace with it.

Anyway, "Special needs, are you crazy Thommy," was my initial thought. I was 50 years old when the email came with the precious face of a little guy in need of a family that had DS. My heart broke when I saw the picture. But my fear level went up as well. This was serious! Not noble or great or what good hearts you guys have. NO! A little child with permanent serious issues needed a forever home. FOREVER! God began the challenge to my thoughts about how I thought my life should be right then and there.

You see I had learned through the adoption of our son Eliot from Guatemala in 2007, that age had nothing to do with it. God calls us and we are to respond. What an absolute joy it has been being a mother to our little boy who is now 4 years old. So I knew that saying absolute things like, "no way are you crazy?", or "I am not convinced that God would want us to do this." would not be pleasing to God. My husband felt a tug in his heart towards another adoption and I needed to trust in God and trust in the direction God was taking my husband. We have always ended up on the same page in other areas of life sooner or later and with it came lots of grace-filled life lessons. I was being prompted by God to step outside of my comfort zone, to lay aside my opinion and to quietly consider, and converse with my husband and my Heavenly Father. But was I willing to say, "Not my will, but Your will be done?"

As in everything in my Christian experience, each step forward begins with a questions that send chills up my spiritual spine, interrupted sleep, lots of tears and then PEACE. Peace came in waves like warm blankets on cold days when the chills would not leave my bones. God was and is so patient with me during these times. He already knows the outcome, He already knows the days ahead, He already knows. This is where I find my peace. This is where I will end this first post.