The most exciting adventure we have endeavored as a family is underway! God has opened our eyes to the myriad of hurting children right outside our door. Very quickly it became apparent that we are able to put a tiny dent in the staggering number of foster children in North Carolina. We simply could not say no. We couldn't even think about it long enough to change our minds. It became a must do, no questions asked undertaking of faith.
James 1:22-27 reads:
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive
yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do
what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after
looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and
continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will
be blessed in what they do. Those who consider themselves religious and yet do
not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their
religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and
faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to
keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Isaiah 1:17 reads:
Learn to do right; seek justice.
Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
plead the case of the widow.
Psalm 68:5,6 reads:
A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy
dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the
prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.
Proverbs 31: 8,9
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Psalm 82: 3,4 Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor
and the oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand
of the wicked.
To record our journey Anna and I opened this blog. It will be simple but informative as we desire to keep our family and friends in the loop the simplest way we know how. We are so excited to share this with you!
No doubt this will be a challenge. We are interested in adopting a little boy Isaac's age or a little younger or even a sibling group of two kiddos. We are prayerful and open to whomever God sends our way. He loves us fiercely. Looking beyond our comfort and into the eyes of kids waiting for a forever family, I can see His love. Somewhere, right now, a child is praying for a committed daddy and mommy to rescue them from a painful past, a scary present, and an uncertain future. I feel inadequate. I am somewhat scared or, maybe nervous is the word. We can read and read about a child and feel like we can handle them then get them into our home and find out he or she is nothing like we expected. But God says, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ...Matthew 6:24-34 I for one am honored that God sees us fit to raise this child. Praise God!!
