I am so excited to be posting on my new blog...Keisha at
Blogs for Babies
did a WONDERFUL job! Thanks Keisha!! I wanted a new blog because I wanted to blog about our family, adoption, and my general "soapbox" discussions all in one place. I will still keep Operation Giggle open so I can use it for all of that sort of stuff. But I will be taking down Princess with a Purpose.
The name for this blog came from a scripture Romans 12:9. My Dad who is also our Bishop (or Senior Pastor) preached a message out of Romans 12: 9-21 about the type of Christian we should be. I have to say that when my husband Mitchell and I took stock of how we have been living our lives we saw that so many times we don't meet the "par" set by Christ. Ever since that message we have been striving (and failing a lot) as a family to act like God intended for us to.
Right now we are in limbo. We KNOW we are called to adopt. We WANTED to adopt a cutie that we met through Operation Giggle, we applied for adoption through a local agency and we ask them to search for the little girl (who I will call A). After about two weeks of looking for her they said they were unable to locate her file and would not be willing to continue to look. We were all very sad. My Colton started crying in the middle of Wal-Mart and said "but I want my little sister from China". That is the way we all felt. We WANT her.
Well during the time when the local agency was looking for her I had been following another blog about a family that had adopted from Ethiopia. I had shared with Mitchell and after they said they couldn't find "A's" file he said he wanted us to look into Ethiopia. We had been approved for Ethiopia as well when we applied with our agency. Well I had to try one more time to find her and if we didn't then we would go with Ethiopia. So I called an agency out of NY that a friend had recommended. They said that they would look for her file ONLY if we agreed to take another child from China if we did not find her file.
As you see I put WANT and NEED in capital letters in this post. I did it for a reason. Sometimes the thing we WANT so badly is not what we NEED. It is not what God WANTS for us. I started feeling in my spirit that this just wasn't going to work out. I prayed and I just couldn't get peace that "A" was coming home to be our daughter. More than anything I need God to speak clearly to me through all of this and on the Sunday before I got the email from our agency telling us they couldn't find her I prayed a specific prayer. "God, I need to know your will, please either clearly OPEN or clearly SHUT the door to this child for us this week" well less than 24 hours later it closed through that email. Then even though I believed I knew His will for us was not sweet little "A" I pushed a little harder and called the NY office. When they told us we had to agree to take another sweetie from China after we had just agreed that if "A" wasn't available we would look into Ethiopian adoption I felt like this was God saying "No" again. Sometimes I still need to be told twice I guess.
So we have our "initial approval" for Ethiopia...we have yet to step all the way on to the paper trail. We have one specific prayer request that we NEED to be answered for us to move any further. God knows all about it and I know he can take care of it. Please pray that He gives us patience while we wait on Him to move. I know, I know, it's not wise to prayer for patience...well I am going to need it on this adoption road so why not get it up front?!
So now when I dream of my sweet new baby I dream of precious little Ethiopian children and I am so excited to look into their chocolate brown eyes and know that they are home, but I know that God's plan for us is big and doesn't stop with this adoption and I can't help but think that someday I will also look into a set of beautiful almond eyes and welcome another precious child to our home.
For now I will wait and I will strive everyday for the "mark" of Romans 12:9-21
9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it [9] to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
In Christ Alone,
