Father's Day

Sorry for being so slow to post updates. It's been a little bit of a circus since coming home ;) But at the moment both boys are napping so I'm taking the opportunity to open my computer and post the entries that I wrote while we were traveling...

June 18, 2017

I said to Dave it’s not every Father’s Day that you get to fly to Ethiopia to pick up your firstborn son!  :)  Pretty amazing.

Yesterday we flew to D.C. and stayed overnight in a hotel.  It wasn’t the best night sleep ever for either one of us, but it definitely beat the sleepless red eye flight we took the last time!  

This morning I woke up to this verse popped up on my iPhone:

Ps. 68:5

“A father of the fatherless,

a defender of widows,

Is God in His holy habitation.”

Later on the plane I read the rest of the chapter…

“God sets the solitary in families;

He brings out those who are bound into prosperity…

Ethiopia will quickly stretch out her hands to God.”

Hopefully someday Luke will see that God, his Heavenly Father, reached down seeing his need and placed him in our family.  We realize that it may take awhile for Luke to understand that this abrupt change in his life is for his greater good.  In the moment, I don’t think he’s going to feel like he’s being saved or rescued.  More likely, he will feel confused and scared.  But we trust that with help from above, he will quickly learn that he is loved and safe with us.

This morning I also read these verses:

Heb. 12:1-3

“Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside very weight, and the sin which so easily ensures us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.”

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.  It made me think of our little workout session at the hotel gym last night (though my walking/jogging can hardly be classified as a “race” but that’s beside the point!).  As I was on the treadmill, I was trying to process the many emotions that come with this adoption journey.  I was praying and telling the Lord that I just feel inadequate and unprepared.  There are so many unknowns.  So many “what if’s”… it’s overwhelming.  What if he doesn’t like us?  What if he just cries and cries our whole trip home?  What if he gets mad because we don’t understand what he’s saying?  What if I don’t have what it takes?  It’s scary.  But I felt Him encouraging me as I ran uphill on that treadmill.  As a matter of fact, I felt a lot more energetic than normal, like I could run for miles on end.  (Later I realized that some of that was because my lungs had just traveled from a mile-high to sea level.  Once again, beside the point!)  I was blasting Today’s Christian Hits on Pandora.  “Your love never fails, it never gives up; it never runs out on me.”   God never gets tired.  He never gives up on me.  He fights for us.  He’s fighting for Luke and it’s a privilege to be a part of that.  I know this is the race he has carved out for us.  And He reminded me that I don’t have to feel up for the challenge.  He is the One doing the work.  He will give us the strength and stamina and wisdom that we need.  “Let go and Let God.”  That’s what I need to do.