Are we there yet!?!

We are quickly approaching home after our sudden trip to visit Brian's father, grandpa, in the ICU and be with him as he passed away. Although a sad time we had a fun time with family and a a lot of driving time to think and plan what our next life steps are. Our house is no longer home since we have sold all our stuff and packed up all our pictures. It is just a sad reminder of where home used to be. Home is now in the RV with no where to park. We are in crunch time with the house under contract and potential closing less than 60 days out, we need to get our 7 acre raw property livable QUICK! (Click here for our recent update to our upcoming move)

For all those following our raw land, debt-free journey here is just a plain old "need" list of what is required and the cost involved:

Trash pick-up by hand: free but TONS of work,

Rent construction dumpster for trash (we could fill up 2-6): first dump $400 then $150 per dump,

Rent Backhoe for land clearing and trash pick-up: $1700/week,

Land clearing by hand: free but need an army of chainsaws and workers,

Two trailers and 2 wooden house structures needing demolition: $?,

County Electric hook-up: $55,

Electrician to install power pole: $900-1200,

County Water Meter set-up at road: $800-1200,

Plumber to install water line to home site: $?,

Septic tank and installation: $?,

Perimeter fencing, cheapest wire farm fence: $3000,

Then there is the dream "want" list:

Sod so we have a field of grass instead of dirt: $?,

A small insulated, air-conditioned storage shed/cottage to house our washer, dryer deep freezer and a shelf for storage or craft and homeschool supplies: $3000-$10000,

Garden bed, flower pots, flowering plants to beautify property: $?,

A picnic or outside table to have room to seat or whole family during meals: $?,

A swing set or tree house or an outdoor play place for kids: $?,

Then a full-fledged farm, cows, chickens, goats, pigs, geese, a horse and maybe a llama or an emu :)


God is teaching us to live within our means with contentment. We have been and are tempted to borrow money at every turn so we can have it all quick but that is what got us up to our ears in debt in the first place :). God will provide faithfully as we faithfully learn, more fully, what it means to wait on the Lord!


Posted by Shannon
Soli Deo gloria - Glory to God alone

So Many Preperations! So Many Distractions!

A whirlwind doesn't even begin to describe the turbulence of our life for the past month! Wind constantly pushing and turning and rushing! (Click here for post explaining our upcoming move) We have had garage sale after garage sale, met with 50+ people for sales from craigslist and facebook, listed and shipped dozens of items on eBay.
 
  
 
Tried to stay consistent on potty-training the twins (Titus and Maggie are both 2 years old).
 
                            

 Cleaned and cleaned and cleaned to keep our home "show clean" for any perspective buyers (which is a triumph in itself with 5 kids and 2 dogs).
 
              

We have been traveling back and forth daily to care for our land-clearing goats and join them by picking up trash and chopping down trees with the added bonus of ticks and poison ivy!
 
  
  

I feel like I skipped July and now August is slipping away! Our goal was finishing clearing enough of a path to park RV on property and moving completely out of the house by Sept. 1st. That gives us 15 days left.....God has put all this above busyness on halt. We are now packing quickly to go visit family in Virginia. Brian's father (grandpa) is in the ICU on life support. We are going to rush up there to spend one last week with him and make his passing as peaceful and joyful as possible. Although this is a very sad time the kids are also excited to see extended family again! They had so much fun meeting their grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins last November for the first time!

Although I am a crazy planner I am at peace with this change in my plans. God has been so gracious to not take grandpa suddenly but to give us a chance to say good-bye. We cannot plan death, it sneaks up on us and halts all our plans without apology. It reels us in from looking at the big picture, the future, the "could be"s and the "what if"s, it slows us down again and lets us marvel at the little things.  The way a nectarine  tastes and smells when you take the first bite. The way our dogs' tails wags when we come home after leaving them. The sparkle in Mirabel's eye as she falls in love and nuzzles her little goat. The way Maggie's tiny hands wrap around my neck ever so tightly when I am pulling her training pants up. The way Risa's long black hair waves and flows at her every carefree leap and twirl. The way Titus's smile beams with the biggest sense of accomplishment after doing something as overlooked as throwing something away for me. The way I hug Anthony and realize for the first time he is almost at eye level and isn't little anymore. The little things that are found in this life alone. The things that can be so easily missed when death seems so far away. Funerals bring that zeal for life, that preciousness back like a slap in the face....

With all our preparations, move, and going ons I jumped on every waking moment to DO something, to pack, to work, to go, to sell, to list, to train....I forgot the "only thing necessary".


Luke 10:38-42
³⁸ Now as they were traveling along, He (Jesus) entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” ⁴¹ But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; ⁴² but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”


Lord I feel so much like Martha, always distracted by preparations! Lord let me learn to be like Mary and just sit at Your feet! For I will never regret marveling at You or Your creation!


Posted by Shannon
Soli Deo gloria - Glory to God alone

Do you ever slow down!?!

UPDATE TO OUR PLAN TO BE DEBT FREE!
So "Plan Move" is underway and sweeping us off our feet! Click here for our previous blog post. We are moving through our goals quickly:
Sell everything (most everything we have has sold, the little left is listed for sale)
Sell house (we have a contracted buyer for house)
Buy or rent small piece of land (or pay rent at RV park) (we have land!)
Move into RV 
Save up every dime of Brian's income for 2-3 years
Pay CASH for whatever house we want
Pray for a new plan (kids say adopt 20 more kids...hope that isn't God inspired)

In late June we went public about this plan and began operation get debt free, it is early August and all is happening so quickly! We don't even have our house on the market yet, the Realtor just put a sign out front and we have already had 4 showings, which by the way cleaning your house in a way that it looks so enticing that someone else wants to live there is very difficult with 5 kids and 2 dogs. We found out today we officially have a contracted buyer! If God wants our house to sell, sell it He will!

 

It is strange to think of life anywhere but our cozy little 3 bedroom 2 bath home in our perfect little city door to door neighborhood. It was our dream home, it has murals on the walls that remind me of my time spent waiting, waiting on children to come. It was here that we prayed for children, that we cried, that we rejoiced. It was here that the kids first knew what it was like to have a real home, one with running water, electric, food, and a family. This is our first home, but one that came with a heavy price tag and financial strain. Although we will miss our life here we are learning that stuff and walls don't make a home, family does.

We have sorted through stuff and more stuff and more stuff! This is different than most moves as we don't have any space for stuff, we need clothes and schooling materials and only very little of either can fit. We have sorted through our clothes and now each of us only have 14 outfits each plus 4 church outfits, which is still more clothes than we can fit in the RV. The kids have chosen their favorite toys and filled a shoebox full, all the rest had to leave. We have all had our material possession idols torn down as we part with every item that provides memories or comfort.

Even with all our losses we are excited about the future to come! We had decided to look for cheap plots of land to park our RV on while we save money to build or buy a house. We know that the RV park in town is $600/month and we know it would take us at least 2 years to save up enough for a reasonable house. So in looking for land we wanted something that would cost less than what we would pay in rent to an RV park for 24 months. We were looking for an acre maybe two in our price range. God had plans for sure! The very first property we looked at was 7 acres, but out of our price range. We tinkered with the idea, what if we could get that land, what if we could have the farm we always wanted! God was weaving our steps as we day dreamed and not only did this property get negotiated into our price range but it is also being owner financed over the next 6 months. But this is 7 acres with a history, a story, 7 acres that is not pretty and looks like it has just plain given up on life. 7 acres of trash and filth that is screaming for salvation, wishing to be cleansed, wanting to be pure!

  

The yarn God uses to weave our tapestry is always worn out and beat up. To the world it is ugly and tattered, but when He is done and says "See what I have created!?!" the world takes a second glance and can only give glory to Him alone who can make the most stunningly beautiful tapestries from worn and tattered yarn! Our life has been one jumbled mess of tattered yarn, we don't buy pedigree puppies, we don't birth perfect newborn babies and we don't buy gorgeous, pristine property, for if you see any beauty in us you see our Father's amazing talent alone, He is the creator of beauty!

  

I love thrift store shopping! I actually NEVER shop retail, it is too perfect, with it's too perfect high price tag. We frequent every thrift store in town and we are recognized by all the workers and owners. We are always buying used and broken toys and turning them into what they were created to be or better. Often with just a new coat of paint, some elbow grease and love they turn into amazing treasures that the kids love playing with (and often can be turned around for a good profit!). This land we got is like the thrift store of land, but with a little elbow grease and labor of love it will one day be the gorgeous green pasture with scattered pine trees for shade with a swing set and clothes line behind a huge light blue country farm house!

  

Before                                                                       After

The path from here won't be easy. It is raw land. No water, electric, or septic. It looks like the forest and we have enough bug bites and poison ivy to show you that the wildlife there is thriving! It will take time and we are working hard every chance we get, we have cleared about .20 of an acre by hand, just clippers, an ax and a rake (we can't afford to rent machine help!). We even had the brilliant idea of getting some free labor out there so we got goats to chow down on brush so we can clear enough of an area to get our RV parked in there. We have had the blessing of some amazing people jumping in with the task of putting up a fence and even brought us a gate and we look so legit! 

  

At this rate we will be moved in no time! This next step of the journey is so exciting and scary all at once. It is at the same time freeing and overwhelming as we lose our financial weight of a mortgage but gain tons of work as we pretty up our new home!

               


Posted by Shannon
Soli Deo gloria - Glory to God alone

Some Cow-Hugging Fun!

Happy Cow Appreciation Day @ Chick-fil-A

 

Our Herd had a blast!

 

Please vote for us and share this link so others can vote too! It would be awesome for kids to win a trip to see daddy's corporate office! Click here to vote: http://contest.chick-fil-a.com/gallery/photo/1285

With all the work of selling our stuff and getting ready for a big move and major life change it was nice taking a break and working on a fun family project.....dressing up like cows! (What!?! Your moving? Click here to read about our upcoming move)

   

We got together all our white clothes and did a quick thrift store run for anyone missing an outfit. We cut out black fabric spots, and more spots and more spots! We made little foam ears with black and pink felt marking and cut out brown foam horns for boys and red felt bows for girls! Lesson: Project Planning 101

                               

The kids got a good sewing lesson then lots of cow-spotty-fun practice! Lesson: Intro to Sewing Cow Fashion

  

Then came the signs! Some cardboard boxes, old twine in the garage and a sharpie everyone was able to design their own chickfila-cowie-mispelled-dripping sign. Lesson: Motto Design & Creative Art

                            

We even whipped up a quick costume for a friend's sweet little baby! Oh! and can you even stand the cuteness of these twins with a dose of cow-cuteness!!!

Here is some fun we had with our finished product!

                         

                         

                          

   

If you didn't notice Tyman REALLY liked the cows! We have a new obsession! Chick-fil-A! Daddy! COWS!

 

 

 

Posted by: Shannon

Debt or not to Debt?

If you haven't read the previous post, then this will seem like a rant :) Click here for previous post

I'm Brian, the husband of this big, multi-colored family. I felt like posting to clarify the decision making behind our focus on becoming debt-free. In April, we went to a Christian home school conference (ATI, click here for previous post) and we met many families who were debt free. The wives and children talked about how it brought their family closer and how they serve the Lord together. Smiles and contentment are great, but the word of God stands the test of time. Here are my thoughts and findings:

“The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.” Proverbs 22:7

A focus on anything in itself can become idolatry. Even good things can be hoisted to take over the focus of our hearts and minds. The focus on getting debt free is due to our love for God, not the dream to be rich, carefree, or slothful. When God talks about debt it is in a negative context and our desire is to glorify Him.

God also calls me as a father to be a discipler of my wife (Eph 5:26) and children (Deut 11:19), to reflect Christ through an outpouring of love and sacrifice for my family. This can come in many forms. Work being one and life together being the other.

By working I show my children and family the value of hard work. and what it means to work as unto Christ. However today in America work has been turned into something to pay the bills and for some a place to get self worth. The job ultimately becomes your family due to needing to pay down the debt you incurred. Sadly the roles we are called to by God are skewed. The focus on debt, job, stress takes our view away from our family and even more importantly God Himself. The scriptures speak clearly of fleeing debt.

"Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law." Romans 13:8

God sees us for the sinners we are. He knew that we would stray to worship things that we feel will satisfy us. He knew we would wade in the pools of debt even though He discourages it. He even set up requirements for loans in the Bible with a fair interest, or in the case of the poor no interest, and even a 7 year debt forgiveness (because Scriptures are clear that we shouldn't get ourselves into a debt we cannot guarentee to repay in 7 years). The borrower would become a servant to pay their dues (Click here for link to Five Biblical Principles about Borrowing). The main point is that debt is spoke of in a negative light. Due to the context of the Bible and my role as a father I really feel led to FLEE from debt. Debt free doesn't mean I will stop working and sit idle. God also speaks highly against slothfulness or laziness but there is a difference between going to the job with the focus on "how am I going to pay the bills" or "I need to make 45 hours this week" and going to a job because you love what you do and can truly focus on an opportunity to serve your Creator.

This is not a thought that quickly has popped into my head and been swiftly followed up on but a prayerful course since April.

I have sought wisdom and guidance from Christians who are living debt free. Their response was overwhelming! They spoke of how they could serve more, how they could financially help others and how freeing it felt.  I have also gotten feedback from those who aren't debt free. One of the hardest things with the shifting of a paradigm is that people who are still living in the old way of life (debt) may have a hard time visualizing a new way of life (debt-free). The main concerns sent to me as a father and husband are "is scaling down with a large family a good idea?" well, depends on your definition of "good". My kids will learn more about being good stewards of the money they've earned and we will most likely grow closer as we lay aside all the distractions that money affords. Also I would not be successfully married for 9 years without seeking the wise counsel of my wife before throwing her in an RV with 5 kids and saying, "See ya hunny, I'm off to work!". Another question I hear is "why not take it more slowly?" I reach back to the Bible where passages on debt speak of fleeing, "Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter's hand And like a bird from the hand of the fowler" Proverbs 6:5. I could move slow, but I don't want to be a dead bird. Does that mean that people who might be concerned or not supportive of our debt-free journey are wrong? I would only respond with search the Scriptures and see where the Lord would lead you and your family. This is where the Lord has led us.

In 2 to 3 years we could be in a great situation. I hear from so many adults stories of being disappointed that their dad was so busy and never around. I don't want to be that dad. I want to be around. Not having to push in those extra hours each week to make our mortgage payment will make a big difference in my time with my family. Think of scaling back just 10 hours a week at work, that is 10 hours more to invest in the lives of your children and family. The joy and peace of coming home and not having to have a financial discussion of whether we can meet this month's list of bills, because if you think about it many couples list finances as their #1 reason for divorce.

The facts are this: My wife is important, my kids are a blessing not a burden, and I desire to focus my life on freeing my thoughts to God and not the things of this world.

Some may call me crazy. Some may call me careless. But it is not them who I answer to, it is my God. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.

Posted by Brian
To God be the Glory!

The Next Great Leap.

After listing pretty much every thing we own in ads and writing "for sale" on our cars so many people began to ask "are you moving?" "where to?" "why?". Here is the post to answer all questions.

Moving is our plan. It is difficult for me to even type "Plan Move" because the public-ness of making this announcement means it is real. No turning back. Our whole world turned upside down.

So after the Summit Orphan Conference (last blog post) we got our notice that our adoption homestudy is expiring and we get one free renewal. We began our update of paperwork, the home visit, more than a dozen references and just have to get our physicals to make it complete. I began dreaming about our next child. We began praying for two 7 year old boys waiting in Hong Kong (Lifeline link). We even began praying for a beautiful sibling group of five in FL waiting for adoption (AdoptUsKids link). Our kiddos REALLY want more siblings, like a lot more, five more scares me half to death, literally gave me an anxiety attack when we began to consider it. I am human. I get scared. I think "not me" but I know if that is where God calls us I will walk obediently and He will strengthen me and open my heart wide to love more regardless of the difficulty.

What does adoption have to do with moving? Nothing. That is the scariest part of this Plan Move. Adoption will be put on hold. Although many women struggle with infertility and although I am currently barren I know God is the giver and taker of life. I have actually taken comfort in knowing that I have two doors open to receiving the blessing of children. God can give me children through adoption or open my womb. Plan Move scares me. It closes the one door that God has used to bless us. It leaves only the barren door open. It tests my trust in God.

Okay okay, get on with it, what is Plan Move!?! I have to continue with a little back story so...you may want to go back to Pinterest if this is too wordy :)

Brian and I were your normal American dreamers. We were newly wed and both working full-time. We had our apartment and new car but seemed to just make ends meet. A year went by and our wealth grew, our pay raised and we bought a 2nd new car and moved into a nicer apartment. Another year and income is growing but our standard of living was growing faster. We bought a house. November 2006. We were finally there, after just two years. We sported the nice cars, beautiful, cozy, 3 bedroom house, perfect for our 2 planned children (one boy and one girl, of course!) in a very upscale neighborhood. We made it! But we didn't make it on our money. The payments began to pour in and we were sinking fast. The market crashed and we instantly lost any equity we ever hoped to have. Only a year into our perfect dream we were on the brink of foreclosure. Thankfully Brian heard Dave Ramsey on the radio and we became serious about staying afloat. We worked overtime, two, even three jobs to pay off the debt we had racked up so quickly. I dog sat, cleaned houses, Brian mowed lawns, we painted, built furniture, we did every odd job we could pick up. Finally in October 2008 we paid off $50,000, all that was left was the mortgage. The waters were lowering and we could swim again.

Then God captured our hearts. When our strength was spent and we were weary He adopted us into His family, His heritage, His inheritance. Our father quickly showed us in His word that we are to care for the least of these and we ran after that call by becoming foster parents (link to our fostercare/adoption timeline). We wanted to serve these children and their birth parents but God had other plans, He made us parents of five...QUICKLY! Now we are just a normal family but the door to serving through foster care has been shut...now what?

God has been convicting us to walk down a much more difficult path than adopting again. He is calling us to finish swimming in debt for good and walk again on dry ground. "Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another;" Romans 13:8 "The borrower is slave to the lender" Proverbs 22:7. God speaks a lot on debt in His word (google can tell you). We have racked up $20k in debt since kiddos joined us and still have our very high mortgage payment. So this is Plan Move:

Sell everything
Sell house
Buy or rent small piece of land (or pay rent at RV park)
Move into RV 
Save up every dime of Brian's income for 2-3 years
Pay CASH for whatever house we want
Pray for a new plan (kids say adopt 20 more kids...hope that isn't God inspired)

So that is it. Plan Move. Simple yet terrifying. Living in a 320sqft RV for 2 years with 5 kids and 1 bathroom will be a walk of humility, patience and contentment, all are SUPER hard, scary lessons. I pray that through this God teaches us, strengthens us, and helps us leave a legacy for our children. That they would not seek an American dream but a God's will dream! Not a fleeting dream but a dream that walks down the hard roads for the long-lasting inheritance in an eternal kingdom.


***For anyone currently in our shoes when we were newly married or even before marriage. STOP! Take the shoes off and do not borrow money! Work, save up, live low now and build up so that you are not dragging your kids into the low life later to rebuild.***


Imagine the money you could give if it wasn't tied up in your mortgage!
Imagine the ways you could serve if those credit cards were cut up!
Imagine the time you could take off to love on your little ones if you drove a paid off car!

That is where our imagination is. The journey may be tough but the reward will be GREAT!


Posted by Shannon
Soli Deo gloria - Glory to God alone

Pursue me.

There I stood in the hallway, hands tightly clasped behind my back and anger surging like fire through my veins. I stared back at the little girl with long brown hair framing a face reddened from screaming and narrowed, evil-scheming eyes. This is the orphan Jesus sent me to care for? I could feel the place she hit me still stinging and the filthy words she called me reeling through my head. This is it, one call, that is all it will take, one call, the state will take her away and this season of terror is over. One call and I can go back to my normal cozy life without case workers visiting, police officers over to chase run aways, weekly visits to the principal office, and constant fights to get her to eat, come when I call, go to bed, stay where I ask her to, listen to me or talk to me. I am exhausted, weary. I am just plain tired of pursuing her, tired of showing love (that I don’t feel) toward her. At the same time I was consumed with thoughts of the others in our home, her five year old sister I have watched her throw a dictionary at and tear down verbally with no remorse, her nine year old brother she bossed around like a beaten puppy, the five and ten month old infants I had to protect from any more abuse or neglect in their life. Here I am with five children, five lives that have so many needs, challenges and nurture and I hadn’t even been a parent for six months. Normal women have one infant at this stage in their parenting. “God, WHY ME!?! I have no idea what I am doing? I am weak, so weak. Please take this from me!” So I made that call, they came, they took her, and she was gone.

Hours after this little girl was gone God once again washed me clean with the gospel. As He promised, He strengthened me, took my burdens upon Himself. He woke me up, once again, to where I came from and where I was headed. He reminded me of my wretched, sin lavished, orphaned state He originally found me in. He reminded me of how dearly loved I was, how He made me His daughter, despite my behavior and unwillingness to conform to His will. I ran, He pursued me. I said vile things, He pursued me. I hated and in anger hurt others, He pursued me. While I was running, in my sinful state, He completed what was necessary to make me part of His family. He wanted me, a wretched sinner, who didn’t even like Him, as His daughter. He pursued my adoption despite my behavior. Even in my worthlessness He paid the price to adopt me as His own. He took His only, perfectly obedient, Son and put all my sin upon Him. “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.” Isaiah 53:5.

God showed me that adoption IS the gospel. Before God formed the sun with His hands or placed a single star in the sky He was planning and preparing for my adoption. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as HE CHOSE US in Him BEFORE the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to ADOPTION as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.” Ephesians 1:3-6.

 

This hardhearted little girl joined us again, very unwillingly, the very next afternoon. It continued to be difficult, but God gave me strength to continue to pursue her. She continued to reject and run, but God gave me the compassion to continue to show her love. We filled out paperwork, filed fingerprints, had background checks, scheduled home study visits, planned and prepared her adoption, invited her into our family, and rescued her from her orphaned state. We pursued her adoption despite her behavior.

 

Then one day she found she could love. She allowed the overwhelming love she was shown to break her chains and bondage to sin and anger. She stopped running and yearned for our love, our family, our pursuit. She was now not just our daughter on paper but in her heart. She loved us because we loved her first. “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”1 John 4:9-10

 

Summit 9 Overload

 During our experience the past two days at Summit9, a Christian Alliance for Orphans conference, we soaked in so much. We are driving home now and are about 4 hours away from our five, precious, different colored faces that we cannot wait to kiss and squeeze!

 

One speaker, Stephen Ucembe, who came from Kenya, spoke of his institutionalization in an orphanage from age 5 until he aged out. The only time he was told he was loved was from a note in a OCC shoebox. The only time he was provided clothing was from short term missionaries. He was provided what he needed to survive from sponsorship programs. But he made it clear that what he needed wasn’t a better institution, more food, clothing or toys but A FAMILY. When we say adoption isn’t our calling, we better be 100% sure God isn’t calling us to pursue a living gospel. Click here for an article about the myths of institutions, why Christians are called to adopt, not open an orphanage in another country.

Another speaker made it clear that compassion compels us to action! He took us through the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. After Jesus tells us to “love our neighbor as ourselves” a lawyer questions “who is our neighbor”. Jesus told of a man beaten and robbed on the side of the road, a priest and Levite walked by and saw the man’s need yet kept walking. A Samaritan had COMPASSION on the man and cared for him. A person is not compassionate when seeing needs but shows compassion when meeting needs. We tend to get too comfortable seeing and speaking on the needs of the orphans to be adopted but haven’t yet embraced our Father’s compassionate heart that compels us to ACTION! Click here for Luke 10:25-37 scripture

God showed me how although I thought my heart was broken for orphans everywhere, He shattered all those broken pieces even further leaving me desperately wanting to open our home again to the child(ren) He has for us. P.S. Hong Kong is on our hearts. Click here for a link to Lifeline's Hong Kong adoption program and waiting children.

The weak are certainly used to shame the strong. I have a new deep prayer that the churches in our nation would wake up to the ignored orphan plight. Bishop W.C. Martin spoke, “If our tiny church of 85 in Possum Trot, a town without a post office or streetlights, on the other side of Coonville, can adopt 73 kids then what is your excuse!?!” Click here for ABC News article about this church.

Most of all God used this conference to awaken my own heart again to the gospel, to adoption! Click here for a very funny audio from David Platt on adoption. Excerpt from David Platt’s book Follow Me:

     “Throughout scripture, God uses the picture of adoption to describe His relationship with His people. This picture became all the more poignant for my wife, Heather, and me when we chose to adopt our first son….
      The process of international adoption can be long and in many ways grueling. Some have described it as a paperwork pregnancy. You virtually have to demonstrate to two governments that you are the ideal family…
     With home studies, fingerprints, and physicals past us, we began the long, agonizing process of waiting. Every single day, we thought about our child, wondering if it would be a boy or a girl and longing for the day when we could hold that little one in our arms.
     Finally, about a year later, I received an e-mail. It was a picture of a boy. Nine months old. Abandoned at birth. In need of a home, a mom, and a dad. I printed out the picture and ran to show it to Heather. We laughed, we cried, we rejoiced, we prayed, and within two weeks, we were on a plane, headed to Kazakhstan….
     For the next four weeks, we visited Caleb in his orphanage. We held him, fed him, sang to him, laughed with him, and crawled all over the floor with him until the day finally came for us to adopt him….The judge pronounced , “I grant this application of adoption, and this child now belongs to David and Heather Platt.” We left the room with tears streaming from our eyes, ready to pick up Caleb from his orphanage for the last time.
     The parallels between Caleb’s story and the gospel story are many, but I want to point out one that is particularly significant. Adoption like this begins with a parent’s initiative, not a child’s idea. Before Caleb was even born in Kazakhstan, he had a mom and a dad working to adopt him. While Caleb was lying alone at night in an orphanage in Kazakhstan, he had a mom and a dad planning to adopt him. And one day when Caleb was placed in the arms of his mom and dad, he had no idea all that had been done, completely apart from any initiative in him, to bring him to that point. It seems obvious, but it is especially important: this precious ten-month-old boy did not invite us to come to him in Kazakhstan and bring him into our family; he didn’t even know to ask for such a thing. No, this orphaned child became our cherished son because of a love that was entirely beyond his imagination and completely outside of his control. He did not pursue us, for he was utterly unable to do so. Instead, we pursued him.
     This is the heart of Christianity, and we are prone to miss it when we describe becoming a follower of Jesus as inviting Him into our hearts. The reality of the gospel is that we do not become God’s children ultimately because of initiative in us, and he does not provide salvation primarily because of an invitation from us. Instead, before we were ever born, God was working to adopt us. While we were lying alone in the depth of our sin, God was planning to save us. And the only way we can become part of the family of God is through a love entirely beyond our imagination and completely out of our control. Christianity does not begin with our pursuit of Christ, but with Christ’s pursuit of us. Christianity does not start with an invitation we offer to Jesus, but with an invitation Jesus offers to us.”

Posted by Shannon
Soli Deo gloria - Glory to God alone