A few weeks ago I finished the book Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick. It is a book about praying and daring to ask God for the impossible. I first heard of this book from a blog friend of mine Tiffany who blogs at A Moment Cherished. Before she blogged there we met through our xanga blogs and I enjoyed getting to know her family. In fact I won my very first blog giveaway from her blog - a Storytime Bible. I enjoyed reading about her love for her family and was inspired to be more organic and enjoyed her recipes she shared. This was before either one of us knew that God would connect us further by the adventure of adoption. The book "Sun Stand Still" is all about daring to ask God for the impossible and praying audacious prayers. Those crazy Sun Stand Still prayers began to unfold miracles in both of our lives. I want to share a bit of my background story today and also share a bit of Tiffany's.
A quote from this book:
"God gives people the exact experiences he wants them to have in order to shape the specific destiny he’s designed for them."
My desire to adopt really started in 2006 after a mission trip to Ecuador. The seed was planted a long time ago. Craig and I have talked about adopting since our days of dating. We always thought we would have two children and adopt one. Then the twins came along in 2007. There was our desired 3 children. Financially, it just didn't seem possible. He was a part-time youth pastor and his other job provided but didn't leave a lot of extra. After the twins were born we took a leap of faith and I quit my job to be a stay at home mom. The budget was tight. Needless to say, I tucked away the dream to adopt. It just wasn't feasible. My heart knew that my family was
not yet complete, but yet I knew I did not want to have any more
children. I kept brushing these conflicting emotions away.
Now here is where Tiffany's story merges into mine -- because all of a sudden God started to speak to Tiffany's heart about adoption and she began to write about it on her blog. With each new entry I read God chiseled away to the hidden place in my heart. A dream that lay dormant and in my mind dead with impossibility.
My call to adopt was not a one time eye-opening experience. God begin to rekindle the dream through a subtle awareness through many different avenues. Tiffany's blog, a Woman of Faith conference where Steven Curtis Chapman spoke, and a Focus on the Family broadcast about adoption were just a few. Though our hearts were stirred, our list of impossibilities kept our faith from pushing forward. My husband calmly explained the reality of our finances and I knew God would have to call us both for this to happen.
My call to adopt was not a one time eye-opening experience. God begin to rekindle the dream through a subtle awareness through many different avenues. Tiffany's blog, a Woman of Faith conference where Steven Curtis Chapman spoke, and a Focus on the Family broadcast about adoption were just a few. Though our hearts were stirred, our list of impossibilities kept our faith from pushing forward. My husband calmly explained the reality of our finances and I knew God would have to call us both for this to happen.
"Time can talk you out of your dreams. Routine can weaken your propensity toward audacity"
--Furtick, Steven (2010-09-21). Sun Stand Still
Defeated again, I began to retreat from my dream to
adopt and decided that maybe my story would be just helping people to
adopt in anyway that I could. During this whole process one of my
closet friends attended a concert where both her and her husband felt
God tug on their hearts to adopt. They brought home a beautiful little girl named Azriah from China. I jealously fed off of their adoption
journey, but not
with bitterness. In fact, God used their story as another avenue to bring back my hope that
someday Craig and I would be on the same page. Tiffany's journey to Ethiopia to get her son continued to pierce my heart.
A long story short - God used Tiffany's blog and Jo's "Orphan Sunday" blog as a final instrument to bring me to a breaking point where God could finally use me. A simple statistic hit my heart like a dagger.
"Our pastor said that only 2% of people who consider adoption actually go through with it."
I
thought my heart literally was broken in two. But maybe that is what
God wanted...to take my brokenness and use it so I would always remember
that God is the one who works in his own perfect timing. That
night we had our small group. We watched this video on being a hero in
your own life story. I wanted to curl into a ball and sob as I watched
it. Then as the video ended and we started to talk....God's presence
poured into the room. Suddenly my husband was saying crazy things.
Though
we were in a room full of people, we may as well been having a private
conversation. To shorten another slightly long story....After praying and talking into the wee hours of the morning... We answered the call to adopt. Throughout 2011 we watched God demolish every impossibility through answered prayer. In January of 2012 we brought home our beautiful son, Zalen Moise, and our lives have been forever changed.
See, our God is a "Sun Stand Still" God. He is still into providing miracles like He did when He made the sun stand still for Joshua. I am sharing all of this to invite you to be apart of another miracle unfolding even as I type this. My beautiful friend Tiffany met a street boy named Habi in Jan. of 2011 when she was adopting her son from Ethiopia. God collided their worlds and connected them in a way only God can. You can read her blog here Day 17 of 7which recaps the story a bit. Recently God closed the door to adopt him. Did that stop the Darling family?! No, because they knew they served a God who makes "Sun Stand Still" prayers possible. On July 2nd this was Tiffany's facebook status:
Tiffany didn't ask me to write this. I just want to share and help in anyway that I can. I've been praying her through along with many others and now they are close to the finish line. So let's join together and cheer them on all the way home!!"God heard our cries and the cries of our precious son. Habi is coming HOME!!!!!!!! We will pick up his visa on Friday. We need to book his ticket home, and we need prayer that he gets through the port of entry in DC (because we are bringing him home a bit early.) We are confident that God will see us through. We got our miracle!!!!! THANK YOU to ALL who prayed for Habi. He was so courageous today. I could not be more proud of him!"
They should be on their way back home right now. I am writing to ask two things -- #1 Please pray Today & tomorrow. They head home tomorrow night. Please pray for
safety, and that they can get Habi through the port of entry in DC. #2 Please go enter this Give-Away Bonanza to help finance the rest of the $$ that is needed for this final leg of the journey. If you can't give, will you at least share. This give-away is simple. The winner gets everything listed! (Some great prizes!! Lots of T-shrits)
Donate $5 and you get one entry.
Click the link below & join this miracle as it unfolds:
--Furtick, Steven (2010-09-21). Sun Stand Still"Dream God-worthy dreams. Pray faith-fueled prayers. Live a life that can be explained only by the existence of a God who is infinitely great."
No comments:
Post a Comment