Faith and Hope April 27, 2010

Hebrews 11:1-3   Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the people of old received their commendation. By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Hope is something that I am clinging to these days – with faith.  Faith that is often pretty weak.  In fact, you might have to look pretty hard some days to find that faith in my heart.

Isn’t it funny how your feelings and belief can swing wildly from one day to the next?  I even find myself feeling completely confident in God’s sovereign control and perfect purposes one minute and an hour later I am floundering.

The girls and I were talking about prayer in our devotions for this week.  Yesterday we read the verse, John 16:23b-24  Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.  Until now you have asked nothing in my name.  Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. 

What “ask of the Father in My Name” means is that the pray-er is directed to God the Father in a spirit of complete agreement with the will and purposes of Christ.  Jesus is teaching that we are praying “in His Name” as a means of invoking his mediation, as the One who secures our access to the Father, and looking to Him for support, as our intercessor in the Father’s presence.  It isn’t that God will answer whatever I choose to ask Him – in the way that my heart might want.  The point of prayer is to bend our hearts and will to God’s will. 

And, this has been my prayer regarding Levi and our adoption.  I have asked that God would work in my heart and that what I want would be what God’s perfect and holy will is.  I would never want to demand of God what I think is best.

It does seem that God wants us to be persistent in our prayers.  Have you ever read the parable of the persistent (obnoxious!) widow and wondered what Jesus was trying to teach us in that story?

Luke 18:1-8   ¹And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. ²He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. ³And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.'” ⁶And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them? ⁸I tell you, he will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

I am sometimes unsure of how to apply certain scripture to my own circumstances.  I do not want to read something into these verses that God did not intend to say.  I also want to be careful to study this scripture in light of other scripture.  However, I can count on these facts:  1) God is NOT like this unrighteous judge.  He ALWAYS does what is right and is filled with compassion for believers who are suffering and will certainly respond to those He loves who cry for help.  2)  The Lord may delay, but it will be for good reason. 

So, I trust that God is sovereignly in control of all of this – judges and people in India that I cannot talk to, let alone see!  We are completely dependent on Him in this – which isn’t a bad place to be!  I know that, “all things work together for good to those that love the Lord and are called according to His purposes.”  (Rom. 8:28)  The good that God plans in this situation may or may not be bringing Levi to be in our family, but there WILL be good.  I am learning to pray in submission to God’s perfect and holy will as we also honestly ask for what we desire.

I hope that very soon we will be able to share with all of you the way that God has answered our prayers and how He has powerfully shown Himself to be sovereign and full of glory.  We desire that God is glorified in this circumstance and in our lives.  That is our ultimate prayer.

Just a Reminder April 19, 2010

We have several fundraisers going on and I wanted to remind you about them.

First, is our Silent Auction/Dessert we are holding on Thursday, May 27.  Please read about that here.  We could really use your help in gathering auction items and would also love for you to attend!

We also have the family bracelet fundraiser – this is a great gift for a mom or grandma or even for yourself! 

Sample Family Bracelet

You can enjoy some great fresh roased coffee and contribute to our adoptive fund with every purchase.

And, last but certainly not least, a wonderful fundraiser offered by Susan of Greenfield Soap Co., where a portion of your purchase will be added to our adoption fund.  She makes great handmade soap of natural ingredients and wonderful fragrances!

Please consider one of these fund raisers to help us with our travel costs to go to India.  Travel costs can fluctuate wildly so it is really hard to plan – especially when we have NO idea of when we will be going.  We assume costs will be $7,000 to $10,000.  Only Kevin and I will be traveling.

Thank you so much for your participation with us in this venture!  We appreciate your prayers most of all! 🙂

Bringing Levi Home – Where are we? April 13, 2010

I was looking back at when our dossier actually left for India and it was at the end of October, 2009.  There is something very sad about our progress when I need to refer to a date from last year!

If things had gone as they should – which is actually a funny thing to say when you are referring to an adoption in a  foreign country – our case should have gone to court in December or January and we would have been called to let us know we had our guardianship by March (or so) and been traveling a month later. 

Well, things did NOT go as they “should” have. 🙂  Not a huge surprise – I don’t know anyone whose adoption has gone the way it is “supposed” to go.  It is kind of like when you read the books about childbirth and see the movie during your childbirth classes and they talk about the different stages of labor.  Have you ever known anyone to have their labor go by that perfect little schedule?  I haven’t! 

So, we wait.  And, we are trying to be patient and wait on God’s timing.  We know this is in His hands.

The India director for our agency is in India right now, so, would you join with us as we pray that while she is there she will be able to have good communication about what is going on with our case and what we might expect to happen and when.  She will also be asking the sisters at the orphanage if she can go ahead and give Levi the photo album we prepared for him as well as some gifts for him and the other children.  This is usually not done at this stage, but we have asked if it could be done so that he would have some time to process this and also build up some excitement for a family.

You see, I have some concerns about what Levi’s thoughts might be about having a family.  He has never had one – only what has been provided for him at the orphanage – which I am sure has been a very loving, caring environment, but not the same as a family.  One of our main prayers has been that God would be working in his heart and preparing him for this huge change in his life.

Psalm 68:6a  God places the solitary in families and gives the desolate a home in which to dwell.

That is what the Lord is doing for Levi.  Even though I know Levi has been loved, fed, educated, and cared for – he has not had a mom and a dad.  He has not experienced that wonderful institution that God ordained when he created Adam and then Eve. 

The family has a wonderful purpose in God’s plan.  We raise our children to learn to obey us with a glad heart so that they will grow up and be able to obey God with a joyful heart.  We see God’s love, faithfulness, and provision in family.  Children grow and learn how God made them and how they can use those talents and abilities for His glory.  In famlies, we learn how to treat others and how to really love someone other than ourselves.

All of these things – and more – are what we want to share with Levi.  We thank you for your continued prayers for the progress of our adoption of Levi.  Pray for God’s sovereign control of all the details, including the timing of when we will travel.

Thank you so much for your partnership with us.  Lori

It’s Been Awhile April 11, 2010

I am not really sure why I haven’t felt like I had anything to say here.  Life has seemed pretty busy – but it usually is.  I will take a few minutes to catch you up.

I just had an interesting interaction with Kira this evening.  She had a little accident upstairs and called down to me and asked me to come up.  I was talking with Kevin so I asked her to wait a minute.  When I went up she looked pretty worried and I asked her what happened.  She explained to me what the problem was and we took care of it.  I talked to her about the issue and what she might do in future to avoid it happening again, but I didn’t get mad.

When we were finishing up, she grabbed me for a hug and said, “I love you, Mom.  When I look at you, it is just like I am seeing Jesus.”  I about burst into tears.  It was a sweet moment.

Kalindi had her first sleepover.  On Friday night she spent the night at the church where she attends AWANA for handbook camp.  She was so excited about it and I was thinking it would be a good rehearsal for the camp she wants to attend for a week this summer.  It turned out to be a rehearsal for everyone as Kira confessed just how upset she was at the prospect of her sister being away and sleeping alone in their room.  She has never in her life slept alone and she was quite worried.

I heard from Kalindi’s AWANA leader that she did just fine and did not seem to have a problem missing us or feeling homesick.  I am glad of that and she did say that she had a great time and still looks forward to camp this summer.  She was quite tired on Saturday from a lack of sleep and has come down with a cold or something.

Kira on the other hand, had a harder time.  She was quiet all evening and spoke of missing her sister on several occasions.  At bedtime she got very serious.  By the time she had brushed her teeth she ran to her bed and threw herself in and started crying – hard.  Poor thing.  I lay down by her and she wasn’t even wanting my comfort.  In fact, she started saying she was mad at us for letting Kalindi be away.  I felt so badly for her.  She finally did accept my comfort and lay with her head on my shoulder crying her eyes out. 

We had a talk about all that she has learned about Jesus and that He is always with her.  She asked me to read a storybook called Sammy and His Shepherd, which is a wonderful book about Psalm 23.  We read the first couple of chapters and Kira was reminded how Jesus is her good Shepherd and cares for her and protects her. 

It turned out to be a very good experience for Kira and I think she gained a lot of confidence in the power and presence of Jesus in her life.  I also think that she will really miss her sister, but that she will be okay when Kalindi goes to camp.

Kali and Kira and I went to the little nursery around the corner from us and picked out flowers for their pots at the front door.  They love picking out the different ones and then planting them in their pots.  We have done this each spring since they came – it is our tradition.  The flowers look cheery and give us all hope that spring is truly around the corner!  We can dream, right? 🙂

Have a wonderful week.