One little piece of paper

Today I am frustrated.  Before we can schedule our third home study meeting, all of our paperwork has to be turned in.  There are three things that we are working on, but it is the simplest one that is the hold-up.  Out of the vast amount of paperwork, inspections, questions to be answered, fingerprints and background checks, it comes down to a doctor's office and their bureacracy.  Joey, Caleb, and I had to have a physical and undergo a variety of blood tests, but Helen just needed her doctor to sign a simple form that said she was healthy.  Apparently, it is not so simple.  And so, we continue this ongoing process and make an appointment for Helen to have yet another physical.  The fact that it took them two weeks to tell us this makes me want to scream, so it is a good thing that Joey was dealing with them and not me.

What is my take away from this experience? 
1. I am asking God to keep my eyes open to His kingdom purposes and those things that are important to others.  When I get busy with my tasks and to do lists, may God give me a holy halt when those things rub up against things that are important to Him and to other people. 
2. In all things and at all times, trust in the Lord.  When I am frustrated, I continue to hope and trust in God knowing that He continues to work despite how I see our circumstances.
BUT I trust in you, O Lord;
I say, "You are my God."
My times are in your hands...   Psalm 31:14-15a

So, we are persevering and pushing forward trusting that God is using all of this to prepare us for Peanut.

Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.

Over the past few weeks, Kerry and I have been learning about pioneer missionaries in our Perspectives class.  One of these pioneers is William Carey, missionary to India and considered the father of modern missions. When Carey was preaching a sermon about missions based on Isaiah 54:2-3, he repeatedly used the phrase which has become his most famous quotation: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” This sermon is considered the foundation of Baptist Mission, but is something even us Methodists can stand firm on.

 

As we completed our second big home study meeting this week, I have been reflecting on this Carey quote for our adoption story and that what God will do is always more than what He has given us to do.  Kerry and I have been staying up late completing our parenting and trans-racial adoption questionnaires.  I have been staying up even later working on the coin collection that we plan to use to finance the adoption (story for another blog post).  All of these are good things that, from a practical level, are working to bring Peanut closer to being home with us.  However, God is the doing the great things of softening and transforming our hearts to His will.  He is doing the hard work of making straight the pathway between American bureaucracy and African logistics.  We are to move forward, not out of a spirit of fear, but boldly and with love (2 Tim 1:7) because God can be counted on to do great things.

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

God is so good! During my quiet time this morning, God blazed His light on some of my questions...let me just admit it...on my complaining heart.  This whole adoption process is costly in many areas...money, time, emotions, vulnerability.  There have been moments during this journey that I want to scream, "Are you kidding me?"  No one contemplating a biological child has to get their septic tank inspected...ask countless people for references...recount her life from birth to the present to a social worker, etc. BUT this is different and all those things that have been driving me crazy are for a purpose and for ultimate good.  God showed me this through His Word this morning.  As I was reading in Matthew chapter 6, this verse jumped out at me, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also".  I have loved this verse since Joey and I lead the stewardship campaign at our church in Cleveland.  It simply proves itself true when it comes to our finances, but this morning, God showed me its truth in the adoption process.  As our family invests our resources in bringing Peanut home, our hearts become invested in our sweet brown baby.  When we write our checks to our agency, we are pointing our finances toward the task of finding our Peanut and bringing him/her to a place of belonging.  While we clean, fill out forms, gather information, and educate ourselves, we begin to invest ourselves in the life of our new child and our hearts start to reside with Peanut.  As we invest our emotions in exposing all we are by opening our lives to our adoption agency, we give our true selves to this child and God begins to meld our hearts with his/hers.  Through this long and involved process, God is doing a good and necessary work.  He is refining us...helping us to count the cost...giving us a willingness to walk through the difficult times...preparing our hearts and home for Peanut.  God is using this process to take our hearts and place them somewhere in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  Now, we are praying and trusting for God in His awesome power and miraculous ways to begin to work on Peanut's heart to prepare that sweet child for our home and our family. 

1st Homestudy Meeting

Yesterday, we had our first home study meeting with our social worker, Michelle.  A whirlwind of cleaning and clearing took over our family in preparation for this meeting.  While that was not a lot of fun, it did feel like we were doing something productive and moving forward in the process of bringing Peanut home. The meeting itself was actually fun.  Joey and I got to talk about how we met, dating, the evolution of our marriage, how we relate to each other, etc.  We laughed a lot thinking back on those early years. The Lord has grown us in many ways since we first met.   It seems this whole process involves a great deal of examination and searching of ourselves.  It makes me think of Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.
We pray that God is using this time of preparation to refine us and make us more like Him.

We also had a home tour during this meeting, so those hours of cleaning paid off.  I'm actually loving having the whole house clean at the same time.  We should probably have a party to show it off.  As we talked about the adoption, we covered many different subjects and it just felt good to talk about it.  It made everything seem real and possible. 

Helen also had her interview yesterday.  She was excited about that because she loves being part of this process.  We ended our time scheduling our second meeting for next Tuesday.  During this meeting, Joey and I will be interviewed individually.  There are a few tasks that we need to complete before our next meeting, so we are going to get busy.

Our family is grateful for your prayers as we go through this process of bringing Peanut home.  Please continue to pray for us as we move forward.

Ugh...cleaning

Hey, it’s Helen! God has answered our prayers and the adoption is moving along! The first part of the home study is on Monday. Unfortunately, that means that we have to clean our whole house from top to bottom. So, everybody is feeling a tad bit grouchy because the entire Davidson family hates to clean. Despite our grumpiness, we are reminded that every place we dust and vacuum sort of brings our Peanut closer to us. Also, we are reminded that in the journey of this adoption that God is doing some cleaning in our hearts and spirits. He is making us more obedient, disciplined, and trusting in His perfect will. So while we are cleaning our house, God is cleaning our hearts and a child across the ocean is waiting for a home.

We are expecting!!!

We are expecting!!! Yes, you read that correctly.  For those of you who don’t know (and many of you don’t) our family has started the process to adopt a child from the Democratic Republic of Congo.  This journey toward this decision started 5 years ago when we traveled on a short term mission trip with our church to Liberia, West Africa.  There God broke our hearts for the plight of the orphan.  Our partnership with the Bishop Judith Craig Children’s Village in Monrovia, Liberia has been a blessing to our family.  Through much study, prayer, and wrestling with God (and each other) we feel moved to grow our family through adoption.  This has been a long process filled with both joy and pain.  We will share more of how we got to this point in future blogs.  God has both closed and opened opportunities for us and so here we are at this point…adopting from the Congo.  We still have many unanswered questions, but are trusting that God will fulfill his promise from Psalm 68:5-6…Father to the fatherless, defender of widows-this is God, whose dwelling is holy… God places the lonely into families.  SO, we are expecting! Expecting what?

• expecting our lives will be turned upside down as God multiplies our family
• expecting God will do more than we can even ask or imagine
• expecting our relationship with our heavenly Father to grow richer and deeper
• expecting many tears and much laughter along the way
• expecting God will show Himself as One who can be trusted