God is at work

I REALLY want to be better at journaling stories of God at work in our lives, mostly for my children. But also because I think when you start deliberately sharing what God is doing, you will be better able to recognize Him working in the future. He is always at work and is constantly reminding me that He is in charge of the little details as well as the big picture. Honestly, I was (and still am sometimes) starting to get discouraged. We started this adoption process 14 months ago and where are we? Sometimes I don't really even know. Yes, we've been on the wait list for over 6 months but all we have to go on are average wait times, so there is no window of time to predict when we will get THE CALL. Waiting stinks...and in it is a HUGE life lesson that I know God is just dying to reveal to me little by little if I will trust Him and His timing. I have so many friends that are so sweet to ask periodically if we've heard anything or how much longer our wait will be. Some days I am thrilled to say that we've been on the wait list for 6 MONTHS ALREADY....I mean, 6 months is a long time right?!?!? Some days I have "forgotten" that we're on a list somewhere in Ethiopia waiting on a very real child to be placed with our family. Some days it doesn't even feel real and I just say the words, "6 months and no we haven't heard anything" without even thinking about what I'm referring to. Some days I'm just so frustrated that I want to throw up my hands and say, "I have no idea what is going on." Anyways, God has revealed to me in several different ways this week that He's got this whole adoption in His hands and figured out.

Surprise #1: A friend of mine put some of my old toys on ebay for me to make some adoption money. Only one item was too large to be shipped so the person had to come to my house to pick it up. Said person came on Monday night, we started talking. His 3 children are all adopted, one from Uganda and they are doing the paperwork to adopt a girl from Ethiopia RIGHT NOW. He gave me his wife's contact info and there you go. Proof that God is working.

Surprise #2: I think that very young children have a special relationship with God and angels - one in which He reveals things to them. God revealed to Elijah that his baby brother should be named Judah and what day he would be born. Elijah told me the morning Judah was born that I would have him that day and I hadn't even begun having contractions yet. I think that God has revealed some things to Judah this week too. I pray with him every night before bed and always pray for his baby sister. He had yet to even speak the word "sister" to me until this week. We were out eating with friends on Friday night (January 14th), and on the way back to the table from the bathroom Judah said, "I'm going to have a baby sister and she's going to walk like this" (he proceeded to pretend walking like her). A few nights later while we were praying, he prayed for his "baby sister" all on his own with no prompting. My prayer is that she was born this week (maybe on Jan 14th) and that we'll get a referral for her in 2-3 months. Even if this does not turn out to be the case, I am still so thankful that God put her on Judah's heart, and that this is starting to become real for him even just a little bit. Proof that God is working.

Surprise #3: An opportunity to make some more of our travel money was laid in my lap. We made enough for a plane ticket last night. I can't believe it. Proof that God is working.

Have a great weekend!