I (Abby) have had a love for Africa and a burden for Africa since I was a little girl. I used to watch the infomercials on t.v. and just cry and cry. My favorite song as a child was "we are the world, we are the children". I could sing it now! So as soon as I knew about this thing called "adoption" my mommy heart was immediately drawn to the idea of not just sending food over to orphans, not just providing for their physical needs, but to their emotional and spiritual needs as well.
I longed to put my arms around children who were in such great need and love them with all of my heart. I did love them and I still do! I talked with Steve before we were married about my heart for a large family and adoption. He was open to this as well, as he has a heart that is driven by the fuel of mercy. However, Steve did not feel it was time for us to pursue adopting in the early years of our marriage. At one point Steve told me not to talk to him about adoption anymore, at all. So I stopped. And prayed. And prayed, and prayed.
God gave me the opportunity to put my arms around precious African children on a mission trip to Tanzania in June of 2004. I prayed a lot during this time about adoption and our family. Several weeks after I got back Steve called me into his office one morning and with tears in his eyes told me that God was laying adoption on his heart. He said he didn't feel called to pursue it right then but that we needed to pray about it. So we did.
Several years went by, we had another baby and we moved and life went on but God still burdened my heart for the needs of orphans in Africa. As our oldest son came to the heighth of his struggles I concluded in my heart that we would not be adopting any time soon and that surely God wouldn't be calling us to it. I told God this past April that I would not be praying about adoption anymore. I almost felt like it would be wrong for me to. That God didn't want me to be praying about anything else but our oldest son. I wondered if he didn't want me to be focused on anything but him. So I told God that if he wanted us to adopt he would just have to bring it up because I wouldn't be anymore. I did this with an obedient spirit wanting to honor God with my life, not because I was refusing to adopt if that was his call. I just felt that sensibly it couldn't be.
Several months went by and I really didn't think about adoption. I had truly let it go. One day at church though God brought it to my attention once again. The preacher, Scott Armstrong, talked about how the early church grew by embracing orphans. In the early Roman empire little girls weren't desirable by many so they would abandon them outside the city gates. The Christians would wait there outside the gates and when babies were abandoned they would take them and care for them as their own. He said that this was how the early Christian church grew to expand the entire Roman empire. He then challenged the congragation by saying "Imagine the impact and influence we would have on nonchristians if we lived like that!"
His message stood out to me, obviously, because I remember that specifically. And one of Steve's friends from highschool visited our church that day, of all days, with his African American adopted son. This evidently made an impact on him.
We went to lunch with our new associate pastor and his wife and in the middle of our conversation with them Steve turned to me and said, "It is time to pursue adoption." I just about fell out of my seat! Is that not God! I knew it was God because so many, SO MANY, other times Steve had said, NO, NO, NO! And several years ago God had begun to lay it on his heart, telling him to pray, but not to go ahead with pursuing adoption yet.
And now, in the fullness of time. God was saying go, go get them! He promised us he wouldn't leave us as orphans, he would come to us, and now we get the opportunity to mirror this beautiful adoption love of God to little ones in Africa!
No comments:
Post a Comment