Day 6 of a Thankful month & Orphan Sunday

**I'm going to preface this post saying it's all over the place** :)


Today, this Orphan Sunday, I am thankful for the call to adopt and for our future son.  I am thankful for the peace God has given us in this journey thus far.  And I am thankful, yes grateful, for the pain we are sure to endure in this process.  You see  Romans 5:1-6 says 

"1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.  3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. " 

So many things I love in these verses.  We are justified by faith.  He gave us access to His lavished grace.  Our suffering isn't just suffering, it produces endurance, character and hope.  We are ungodly, but Christ died for us! What an undeserved blessing.  

I attended a women's conference at our church this weekend and it was great.  I've been struggling in my daily walk with what we can do in the waiting, and the speaker, Jen Hatmaker, gave us some great ideas.  She spoke filled with the Spirit and had some great words.  One thing she said, I've been praying for, it has been reiterated in some blogs I've read, and now in a new book I've started, Primal.  So the question is, "Does my heart break for what breaks God's?"  I've been praying for leadership in this and God is answering my prayer. I don't have it figured out yet, but I do know that this is where He wants me.  He is pretty clear in His word what breaks his heart.  

Isaiah 58:9-10 "Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, 'Here I am.' If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, 10 if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. "

Psalm 68:5-6a "Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation. 6 God settles the solitary in a home;"  

Deut 10:18 "He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing."

Psalm 10:17-18 " O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear 18 to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that man who is of the earth may strike terror no more."

Psalm 82:3 " Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute"

Is 1:16-17 "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;cease to do evil, 17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause. "  

Now, what am I doing in the waiting?  Am I focusing on things of this world, or furthering God's Kingdom?  They are not the same.  Because in the end, that is all that matters.   If I come to the end of my life and stand before my Maker and He asks what I did to further His kingdom, what will my answer be?  I'm praying for the fire to re-ignite in me.  It better not be "I was too busy," "but you blessed me so much, I thought I was doing it right, " "I just didn't see the souls of man to be worth more than my time spent on ________, ___________ or ________."  How tragic that would be.  

I think my heart is where I spend my money and my time.  So we are seeking exactly what that is for our family.  And it's good.  It's good to have tension and seeking God's face.

If you are wanting to get involved in Ugandan adoption, here is the link to many blogs who are raising funds and need prayer in the 'after the airport' life, as well as those like us who are in the waiting part of the process.  

http://ugandaadoptionblogs.blogspot.com/

Here's a great site to get involved with as well. http://sixtyfeet.org/

For now, a little piece of my heart is in Uganda, waiting, praying, loving, interceding, learning to serve, choosing joy, claiming faith, pursuing wholeness for our future child.

None of this will be easy.  Adoption is filled with trauma.  If there was no trauma, there would be no need for adoption.  Parents die, children are abandoned, infants are tossed out.  This breaks God's heart.  God, we are crying out for the oppressed!!  Help us show them your love.  And a God who hears my prayers, this is what I am thankful for.