Ever since our first adoption in 2003, we have felt that our family was not finished growing. We heard many testimonies of people who adopted and then got pregnant again. We are constantly praying that the LORD would bless us however He sees fit and by the means He prefers. So, over the last four years we have waited and even called our adoption agency, Children’s Home Society of North Carolina, and told them we would take another child any time. We had several calls but nothing worked out. With the constant perseverance of Sweet Ellie, we started the adoption process with America World Adoption Agency in 2006 to get a baby sister from China. We sent the initial payment, filled out the paper work and then prayed "LORD, you are going to have to do the rest, which is going to be a miracle to provide financially and open the doors for us to proceed".
Well, in January, 2007, we received an email from our case worker that said we are no longer qualified to pursue this adoption because of where we were in the program and our ages. By the time we were ready for a referral we would be TOO OLD! (According to China regulations) You see, Jerry will be 55 years old this year and I will be 48. So, we very carefully consoled Ellie and said we thought that this was the LORD’S way of saying we are done. No more adoptions, no more babies for us.
So we felt that the LORD was moving us to start an adoption ministry in our church to help encourage other people and give them the vision for adoption as well as assist them with the process. We teamed up with Family Life Today, Focus on the Family, and Shaohannah’s Hope to become advocates for the orphan. Jerry & I are so convicted that this is something the Lord desires for us to do.
But Sweet Ellie keeps telling me that we should pursue adoption again thru another program. Jerry and I were not sure and so I decided to take it to the LORD in prayer. Jeremiah 33:3; "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."
Friday, February 2, 2007
It was quiet, early in the morning and I felt a yearning to talk with the LORD. It was like when you feel like you need to call a friend and you stop what you are doing and pick up the phone and dial. I made a cup of tea, sat at the kitchen table with my Bible and I begged the LORD to meet me there.
This was my conversation with my Heavenly Father: "Lord, I am begging you to speak to me today, right now, to give me your direction, your wisdom, and tell me what you want us to do. I don't want to pursue adoption anymore if you have closed that door to us, I don't want to keep Ellie hoping and waiting for more siblings. LORD, PLEASE speak to me as you have in the past, I beg you to give me an answer now. You see, we are too old, we have no money, Jerry just got a job in January after being out of work for two years and we are really in no financial shape to be growing our family. I feel so unworthy and like such a failure. We should be in a better financial situation in this season of our lives. We have not done as well as we should have in so many areas of our lives, LORD. I feel so unworthy to even come to you. But LORD, I need you, I need to know your will for our lives, please confirm this for me right now. I can see us starting up an adoption ministry at church but not personally adopting. I want to open your Word right now Father and where ever it opens, I want you to be speaking to me directly and clearly. LORD, Please speak to me now!!"
I opened my eyes, opened my bible and laid in front of me and took a big breath. It was JOB 42. Oh no, Not Job! And it was as if the words were illuminated on the page. The first thing I saw was: Then Job replied to God: "I know that you can do anything and that no one can stop you. You ask who it is who has so foolishly denied your providence. It is I. I was talking about things I knew nothing about and did not understand, things far too wonderful for me. You said, listen and I will speak! Let me put the questions to you! See if you can answer them! But now I say, I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you, and I loathe myself and repent in dust and ashes."
Wow, I heard the LORD telling me, he knows what he is doing in my life and I know nothing. He has things too wonderful for me to understand; I can see and hear him. I am mere dust and ashes and HE is in control of my life! Who am I to tell Him what my life should be. This gave me goose bumps all over and I continued to read the illuminated words on the page. The entire chapter was glaring at me and speaking to me.
After the LORD had finished speaking with Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: "I am angry with you and with your two friends, for you have not been right in what you have said about me, as my servant Job was......my servant Job will pray for you and I will accept his prayer on your behalf, and won't destroy you as I should because of your sin, your failure to speak rightly concerning my servant Job."
I heard the Lord telling me that I was to speak rightly of HIM and to keep the faith. Job’s friends did not have the faith and did not speak truth to Job. But I was to remember to always seek and speak the truth. To have faith in him, when I don't understand, or when things don't make sense, to trust in God, He has a plan, I am just a peon and know nothing, but He is the one who has ordained everything in my life and I am just to trust, obey and speak of His righteousness.
Then when Job prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his wealth and happiness! In fact, the LORD GAVE HIM TWICE AS MUCH AS BEFORE!......So the LORD BLESSED JOB AT THE END OF HIS LIFE MORE THAN AT THE BEGINNING ......
Lord, are you telling me we are not too old to pursue adoption.?? God gave him seven more sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second KEZIAH and the third KEREN-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. Lord, why are these names standing out? Why did you say these girls received an inheritance, in those days, girls did not receive an inheritance. What are you telling me?? At this point, I felt the LORD impress on me that "you are to go get your daughters Keziah and Keren, if you don't go rescue them they will not receive the inheritance of my kingdom." I got goose bumps again all over me and began to cry. LORD, are you telling me to pursue adoption for two girls named Keziah & Keren?? This is what I believe the LORD communicated to me.
So I closed my bible, prayed again for wisdom and I felt very quiet and calm. I just needed to meditate on these thoughts and try to make sense of them. Later that evening I called a family meeting and told my husband and Ellie what I believe the LORD had communicated to me that morning. Jerry's response was: "Well, if we are supposed to pursue adoption, we better get on it right away."
We cancelled our scheduled game night and went into the office to start looking on the computer for adoption info. Ellie went right to work showing us some of the things she had found. We tuned in to the radio broadcast of a Family Life Today show which was about a family who just adopted from Ethiopia. They just got home in January ‘07 with their children they adopted with The Gladney Center for Adoption. We went to their website and started researching about Ethiopia. I had gone into the kitchen for a drink when Ellie let out a yelp and said: "MAMA come quick" There is a city in Ethiopia named "KEREN" (Keren is actually in Eritrea, but was once part of Ethiopia). She said: "Mama, this is not a coincidence, God gave you that name and I think he wants us to adopt from Ethiopia."
Then she went to a blog where another family was sharing about their adoption from Ethiopia and they named their little girl "KEZIAH"... the second name the LORD gave me. So now we felt a confirmation that we were supposed to pursue adoption from Ethiopia, both of the names he gave me that morning just appeared as we were learning about Ethiopia. They currently have 4.7 million orphans in the country a little less than twice the size of Texas. This program just opened up about 1.5 years ago.
They are moving very quickly with the adoption process and they are one of the cheapest. As we read the prices for adopting two children, we noticed that to adopt a third child was only approx $1800 more. We all looked at each other and agreed that if we can rescue another orphan for that much, let’s do it. We'll find the money somehow.
So now we are going to pursue adoption from Ethiopia and we are going for 3 children. Twin girls and a sibling. As I communicated this with my girlfriend Beth she noted that her daughter had mentioned we were supposed to get three daughters just like JOB. Then I shared this whole story with another friend of mine, Karla, who emailed me a few days later. She is in the last stage of adoption from China herself. She told me that as she was doing some research for herself, the LORD gave her something to share with me. It is a name to consider for our third child if it is a daughter, "Kasinda" of African origin meaning..."BORN INTO A FAMILY OF TWINS"!
So now we have another name.
Well, in January, 2007, we received an email from our case worker that said we are no longer qualified to pursue this adoption because of where we were in the program and our ages. By the time we were ready for a referral we would be TOO OLD! (According to China regulations) You see, Jerry will be 55 years old this year and I will be 48. So, we very carefully consoled Ellie and said we thought that this was the LORD’S way of saying we are done. No more adoptions, no more babies for us.
So we felt that the LORD was moving us to start an adoption ministry in our church to help encourage other people and give them the vision for adoption as well as assist them with the process. We teamed up with Family Life Today, Focus on the Family, and Shaohannah’s Hope to become advocates for the orphan. Jerry & I are so convicted that this is something the Lord desires for us to do.
But Sweet Ellie keeps telling me that we should pursue adoption again thru another program. Jerry and I were not sure and so I decided to take it to the LORD in prayer. Jeremiah 33:3; "Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."
Friday, February 2, 2007
It was quiet, early in the morning and I felt a yearning to talk with the LORD. It was like when you feel like you need to call a friend and you stop what you are doing and pick up the phone and dial. I made a cup of tea, sat at the kitchen table with my Bible and I begged the LORD to meet me there.
This was my conversation with my Heavenly Father: "Lord, I am begging you to speak to me today, right now, to give me your direction, your wisdom, and tell me what you want us to do. I don't want to pursue adoption anymore if you have closed that door to us, I don't want to keep Ellie hoping and waiting for more siblings. LORD, PLEASE speak to me as you have in the past, I beg you to give me an answer now. You see, we are too old, we have no money, Jerry just got a job in January after being out of work for two years and we are really in no financial shape to be growing our family. I feel so unworthy and like such a failure. We should be in a better financial situation in this season of our lives. We have not done as well as we should have in so many areas of our lives, LORD. I feel so unworthy to even come to you. But LORD, I need you, I need to know your will for our lives, please confirm this for me right now. I can see us starting up an adoption ministry at church but not personally adopting. I want to open your Word right now Father and where ever it opens, I want you to be speaking to me directly and clearly. LORD, Please speak to me now!!"
I opened my eyes, opened my bible and laid in front of me and took a big breath. It was JOB 42. Oh no, Not Job! And it was as if the words were illuminated on the page. The first thing I saw was: Then Job replied to God: "I know that you can do anything and that no one can stop you. You ask who it is who has so foolishly denied your providence. It is I. I was talking about things I knew nothing about and did not understand, things far too wonderful for me. You said, listen and I will speak! Let me put the questions to you! See if you can answer them! But now I say, I had heard about you before, but now I have seen you, and I loathe myself and repent in dust and ashes."
Wow, I heard the LORD telling me, he knows what he is doing in my life and I know nothing. He has things too wonderful for me to understand; I can see and hear him. I am mere dust and ashes and HE is in control of my life! Who am I to tell Him what my life should be. This gave me goose bumps all over and I continued to read the illuminated words on the page. The entire chapter was glaring at me and speaking to me.
After the LORD had finished speaking with Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: "I am angry with you and with your two friends, for you have not been right in what you have said about me, as my servant Job was......my servant Job will pray for you and I will accept his prayer on your behalf, and won't destroy you as I should because of your sin, your failure to speak rightly concerning my servant Job."
I heard the Lord telling me that I was to speak rightly of HIM and to keep the faith. Job’s friends did not have the faith and did not speak truth to Job. But I was to remember to always seek and speak the truth. To have faith in him, when I don't understand, or when things don't make sense, to trust in God, He has a plan, I am just a peon and know nothing, but He is the one who has ordained everything in my life and I am just to trust, obey and speak of His righteousness.
Then when Job prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his wealth and happiness! In fact, the LORD GAVE HIM TWICE AS MUCH AS BEFORE!......So the LORD BLESSED JOB AT THE END OF HIS LIFE MORE THAN AT THE BEGINNING ......
Lord, are you telling me we are not too old to pursue adoption.?? God gave him seven more sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second KEZIAH and the third KEREN-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers. Lord, why are these names standing out? Why did you say these girls received an inheritance, in those days, girls did not receive an inheritance. What are you telling me?? At this point, I felt the LORD impress on me that "you are to go get your daughters Keziah and Keren, if you don't go rescue them they will not receive the inheritance of my kingdom." I got goose bumps again all over me and began to cry. LORD, are you telling me to pursue adoption for two girls named Keziah & Keren?? This is what I believe the LORD communicated to me.
So I closed my bible, prayed again for wisdom and I felt very quiet and calm. I just needed to meditate on these thoughts and try to make sense of them. Later that evening I called a family meeting and told my husband and Ellie what I believe the LORD had communicated to me that morning. Jerry's response was: "Well, if we are supposed to pursue adoption, we better get on it right away."
We cancelled our scheduled game night and went into the office to start looking on the computer for adoption info. Ellie went right to work showing us some of the things she had found. We tuned in to the radio broadcast of a Family Life Today show which was about a family who just adopted from Ethiopia. They just got home in January ‘07 with their children they adopted with The Gladney Center for Adoption. We went to their website and started researching about Ethiopia. I had gone into the kitchen for a drink when Ellie let out a yelp and said: "MAMA come quick" There is a city in Ethiopia named "KEREN" (Keren is actually in Eritrea, but was once part of Ethiopia). She said: "Mama, this is not a coincidence, God gave you that name and I think he wants us to adopt from Ethiopia."
Then she went to a blog where another family was sharing about their adoption from Ethiopia and they named their little girl "KEZIAH"... the second name the LORD gave me. So now we felt a confirmation that we were supposed to pursue adoption from Ethiopia, both of the names he gave me that morning just appeared as we were learning about Ethiopia. They currently have 4.7 million orphans in the country a little less than twice the size of Texas. This program just opened up about 1.5 years ago.
They are moving very quickly with the adoption process and they are one of the cheapest. As we read the prices for adopting two children, we noticed that to adopt a third child was only approx $1800 more. We all looked at each other and agreed that if we can rescue another orphan for that much, let’s do it. We'll find the money somehow.
So now we are going to pursue adoption from Ethiopia and we are going for 3 children. Twin girls and a sibling. As I communicated this with my girlfriend Beth she noted that her daughter had mentioned we were supposed to get three daughters just like JOB. Then I shared this whole story with another friend of mine, Karla, who emailed me a few days later. She is in the last stage of adoption from China herself. She told me that as she was doing some research for herself, the LORD gave her something to share with me. It is a name to consider for our third child if it is a daughter, "Kasinda" of African origin meaning..."BORN INTO A FAMILY OF TWINS"!
So now we have another name.
1 comment:
Eileen,
When I found your blog I wondered, Why the name Job's Daughter's? I can now say, after getting to this point in reading your adoption journey (from the beginning) that I am floored!!
On June 26, when I thought God was calling us to adopt I went to my Bible and picked it up. I told God in just as determined a way as you did: Lord, if you want us to adopt, I need to know NOW!!
God knows my spirit and He knew it was in faith and love of Him that I asked. I needed confirmation or I not go forth. You see, this thought to adopt came after reading Saving Levi (and a lifelong dream). So now I needed to know NOW!!
I opened my Bible and it fell open to the last page of Job and the first page of the next book. The next book started with an intro and so there was not going to be anything there. I thought: What chance of getting a word 'here'. The last page of Job only had a few verses on it.
Then I read. And I was shocked. And I knew God was speaking to me.
Job 42:12-13
Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning; for he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys.
He also had seven sons and three daughters....
At that point I new God was saying a resounding YES! We have six sons and it was specifically daughters that we were wanting!!!
I approached my husband and in a week we had decided to go forth with no money and adopt! It was to be a leap of faith. Within about 12 weeks God had provided us with $25,000 for our adoption!!
We are now at the stage where our dossier left for Ethiopia two days ago, and now we wait. They say for siblings over 3 it can be 2-6 months, and under 3 - 6-10 months. We are praying for a speedy referral.
Btw - we are also an 'older' couple. Not that I feel older!! LOL! I am 41 and my husband 44.
Thanks for sharing your journey. It is wonderful to read.
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