With God ALL things are POSSIBLE! {Our miracle: part 1}

The LORD is good and He is faithful! And only HE is in the business of doing the impossible!

This past week something has happened that has caused me to step back in awe and wonder of how our God is at work in every detail of our lives and how when we are submissive to Him and delight in Him, He truly gives us “the desires of our hearts.” (Psalm 37:4 )

And do you want to know what that “desire of our hearts” is? Well, if you haven’t read THIS POST please go back and read that now. Because in order for you to grasp how amazing this story is, you will want to know where we have already been and what God has already done in our hearts and lives. (note: all identifying pictures have been removed)

In that last post, I had shared that we didn’t know why we went through all of that when God was just going to close the door, but we were certain that adopting from Ethiopia was in the near future. Well, after several weeks had gone by I was feeling like it was time to begin the process. Randy and I had discussed it several times and we were now thinking of using our original agency to adopt one or two girls between 2 and 7. We knew that we wanted Elliana to remain the “baby” for now, but really felt that it would be good for her to have a sister or two closer to her age to grow up with. I was already chatting with our social worker and thinking about girly bunk beds. Yes, I was still sad about not being able to adopt “our kids” but I figured it was out of our hands and we might as well move forward because we all know how long the adoption process takes! I made sure Randy knew I was ready and he would agree with me, but every time we would say we were going to sit down and fill out the application something else would come up and it just didn’t happen. Randy seemed hesitant to want to make a commitment too. Finally one morning last week I told him that I was ready and that I wasn’t going to say anything else or bug him, but when he was ready to fill out the application then to let me know. He told me he just didn’t feel like there was “closure” about the other situation and he wanted some closure before we moved on.

It was true, I hadn’t felt true closer either but I wasn’t really sure what else there was to do. The truth was that we had never actually heard from the children’s orphanage director ourselves, but we had only been getting messages from the agency, who was getting messages from their in-country staff. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal because most people choose an agency they can trust. But in our case we had jumped into this so fast that we had failed to do our research and had ultimately ended up choosing an agency that we later found out has some very severe allegations against them and has not been ethical with it’s adoptions. We were so glad to have found out the information about the agency before we had lost a lot of money and of course cut ties with them, but we never once thought that they might not be telling us the whole truth about what was happening in Ethiopia.



So the day after Randy had told me he needed closure, I decided that I was just going to call Ethiopia and speak with the orphanage director myself. I figured it was the only way to really know what had happened and to know that there was no way that N and M would ever be a part of our family. Although we would never ever forget them, this was going to be the closure we needed and we would finally have a peace about moving on.



Oh and how our Lord must have been smiling down at us right then! :)


I got a hold of F, the director, right away and began to explain to him why I was calling. At first he couldn’t figure out who I was as I kept asking him if he had got our emails. I finally asked him “Did the adoption agency staff talk to you?” and all of a sudden it clicked. He was like “oh yes hello dear sister! God bless you! I am so glad to hear from you!” He told me yes he had got our emails and he was shocked and saddened to get the last one. (which told him that we had stopped pursuing them because of the information that the agency had told us) I asked him why he was shocked and if he understood that the reason behind the decision was because we wanted what was best for the children and it sounded like their mother had never even thought about adoption before and we in no way wanted to feel like we were pressuring her into anything.



What he said next brought me to tears.



He said that only a few days before he got our email he and a friend had went to visit the children’s mother who is a widow. He told her the news that a family wanted to adopt them and she cried because she was so happy. He told me she is a Christian and she said she had prayed to God that before she died she would know that her children were in a family. He said she loves her children very much and when she brought them to the orphanage 5 years ago she knew that he would take care of them and love them and teach them about God. And now to hear that someone wanted to adopt her children as their own had brought her so much joy that she cried in front of him.



He said then a few days later he got our email and figured something had happened and we had changed our minds about them. He said he had told the agency to tell us what their mother had said. Um, yeah well that message somehow never got relayed. Hmmm.



WHAT???!!!



Can you imagine what was going through my head at that moment? Oh my! Talk about things getting lost in translation!



He then asked me, “Do you still want to adopt them?”



Of course I didn’t have to think twice. I already knew the answer and I was 100% confident that I could speak for Randy on this one. There was no praying and waiting to “see if this was God’s will.” He had already revealed it to us and THIS WAS IT!



I said yes of course we did. That we still loved them and wanted the absolute best for them. This conversation with their mother had changed everything and I was still in shock from the news. We discussed the fact that if this was truly what God wanted, then the entire process would be done ethically and above reproach. That there would be A LOT of details that would need to fall into place and that there would be documents and legal papers that he would need to get. He agreed that because we are all Christians, everything would be done legally and ethically or it would not happen. Before we got off the phone, he told me he wanted to talk with their mother again and to give him about a week before calling him back. He wanted to be absolutely certain that this was her wish for her children and I of course didn’t argue with that. He told me to pray hard. Pray for peace for all those involved- their mother, the children, the director, and for us.



And that is exactly what we did.



We waited and prayed.



We were excited, but cautious. It seemed as though the Lord had flung the door back open again, but we wanted to be absolutely certain.



And what would happen a week later would be just the confirmation we needed…



Stay tuned for part two! Coming soon! :)