Thursday Devotional - Adoption, Take 2

Thank you to all those who prayed for James last week! He is finally feeling better with no more numbness or blurred vision. We’re praising God!

This week, we willingly face a different set of challenges! We’re four becoming six! We fostered-to-adopt James and Sarah 4 years ago and God had plans for us to do it again (it’s a long story, but we had specifically told our licensing agency we were a closed home during the pandemic).

Tomorrow, twins (a boy and girl, turning 4 in October), will move into our home! They were born the exact day and year as the day we officially adopted James and Sarah!!! Finding that out was one of the many confirmations God gave us to “say yes” to fostering-to-adopt again.

We just took our foursome family photo the end of July, which I thought would be perfect for our Christmas card! I guess not… 😉

God continues to fulfill His purposes from the burden he placed on our hearts over 10 years ago about taking care of 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.

Will you please pray for all 6 of us as we go this huge transition? It’s exciting and scary, all at the same time!

Alice

Thursday Devotional - Led to a Dead-end?

Have you ever had a time when you felt God led you in a certain direction and then it didn’t go at all the way you thought?

I wonder if Paul ever felt like that. He was arrested by the Jews and appealed to Caesar, but that just led to trials before various governors and kings. He faithfully shared the truth about God, but it didn’t seem to make a difference in the lives of the listeners.

Acts 26:29-32  ²⁹ Paul replied, “Short time or long—I pray to God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains.”

³⁰ The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them. ³¹ After they left the room, they began saying to one another, “This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment.”

³² Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

Paul was passed around and never released. I wonder if he ever second guessed being led to appeal to Caesar. I think I would have felt led to a dead-end!

I’ve certainly felt led to a dead-end several times in my life. One big situation was over a decade ago. When we were studying the book of Isaiah, I felt led by God to look into adopting orphans. We did various research on orphans and adoption and eventually were led to consider foster children. God even provided a weekend foster conference nearby the one weekend we could attend! Afterwards, we registered for foster parent orientation. However, we were literally locked out of the orientation class! We couldn’t even get rescheduled for the next month, because they weren’t having one. It was very confusing. In hindsight, God was preparing our hearts, but it sure felt like a dead-end at the time.

We can follow God’s lead, even if it seems to end at a dead-end. He sees the big picture. His purposes and ways are best. His timing is always perfect.  

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Alice

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