Thursday, November 17, 2016

Our Journey to Adoption, Part I

For a while, we thought it wasn’t God’s timing for us to have children. Then, in 2009, we were studying the book of Isaiah and I was challenged by God’s command to take care of widows and orphans.
Isaiah 1:17   Learn to do right; seek justice.
   Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
   plead the case of the widow.
James 1:27         Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
As we researched “orphans” in the United States, we realized there are very few orphanages anymore and few of them actually adopt out the children. However, there are thousands of children in the foster system. So, we prayed about whether God was directing us to take care of orphans by pursuing foster-to-adopt.
In God’s timing, several months later there was an “Orphan” conference in Grand Rapids. It was all about fostering-to-adopt. We attended the conference and then signed up for an official orientation class in our area through the Department of Human Services. However, we had bad traffic, were 2 minutes late and the doors were locked when we arrived. We knocked on doors and called numbers we had, but to no avail. We took that as literally a closed door, at least for a time.
God knew we didn’t need to be licensed yet. James wasn’t going to be born for over 2 years. I think God planted the idea early so He could prepare our hearts and test our willingness.
Has God planted a desire or goal or purpose in your heart that hasn’t gone anywhere or worked out, at least not yet? Will you seek and then trust His perfect timing?  
Alice

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