As the month of May comes to a close — which happens to be National Foster Care Month — I want to share a small part of our family’s adoption story.
Like any testimony, may King Jesus be magnified!
LONG before I even had an inkling of becoming a foster mom, God made me aware of seeds He had planted in my heart.
1) Providing a refuge for orphans (I was 7 years old), and
2) Homeschooling my children (I was 18 years old).
I didn’t see them as overlapping, BUT GOD DID!!
Fast forward more than 30 years later and I still shake my head in awestruck wonder of how miraculously He orchestrated every step between those years long ago and today. (Often, my head is banging against the pillow in frustration too, just to be totally transparent!)
One of my kiddos has an alphabet soup bowl of struggles: SPD, APD, PTSD (I think it’s called something else now, but whatever), Dyslexia, two AI diseases, cognitive delay, and to keep us all on our toes, a sprinkling of ODD.
Seems like the junk of her first 2 years of life should have been enough to deal with and this left me wondering, did the years ahead of her need to also be full of struggles?
The simple answer is YES!
My daughter’s Creator God knew how others would sin against her **and** HE providentially leads us on the exact path she needs to walk in order to be set free from what our enemy intended for evil against her.
Because of all that she has going on, she and I are together A LOT! That togetherness is so important for her!
Again, to be candid, it can be suffocating for me when I take my eyes off Jesus and look across the fence to more typical families, but then I repent and get my eyes where they need to be.
Hospital waiting rooms, blood labs with all the associated drama of those draws, doctor appointments, homeschooling, special reading and writing exercises, and plenty of heart-to-heart conversations — these all are a part of God’s love for her on display. One must have eyes to see, though.
That means we can’t look through a filter with our personal expectations.
LOOK and SEE!
With eyes that can see, the Intentional Observer can recognize how hard she has to work to memorize Bible verses.
First, we write the verse in small-phrase segments.
Then, we cut them into smaller segments.
Lastly, she cuts them into single words.
All along the way, she mixes them up and struggles (truly labors) to put them in order, struggling to sound out even familiar words.
Today, without any review, without looking at the bits of cardstock, she quoted the entire verse without any prompts.
Her smile — beautiful teeth and dimples on full display — had me fighting the tears of joy.
SHE DID IT!!
In a day (or even in an hour) she will be frustrated again. She’ll forget the accomplishment of this morning. That’s where I come in, reminding her that she CAN do it, even while inside my head, I feel the urge to scream, “Are you kidding me? Have you so quickly forgotten??
Her grumbling will communicate that she doesn’t care, but God is teaching me to disregard her protests and keep showing her that she can.
But even the victory is a little hollow for her. She wants immediate healing!
What she doesn’t yet grasp is that hard-fought victories are beyond compare!
GOD is giving her a tenacious spirit and a tenderness of heart that didn’t exist even 2 years ago.
Eight years ago, I would have said this day was NEVER, NOT-EVER going to come. Impossible!!
God’s Word says, “What is impossible with man is possible with God.”
Luke 18:27
LOOK and SEE!
My daughter and I are servants of the Lord.
Such a place of rest as the mama to my children.
We get to TRUST, WAIT, and FOLLOW Him as He lights the path He places in front of us — even when we accidentally look away from Jesus and see more traditional families exceling, we get to re-focus and keep our eyes on Jesus!!
God tells us that, the actions that were meant as evil against my children, God means to reveal the good He is transforming it to be.
Genesis 50:20
His Word also tells us that it is no longer my kids and me who live separate from God, but Christ who lives in us. And the life we now live in the flesh (disorders, diseases, and emotional struggles) we now live by faith in the Son of God, who loves us and gave Himself for us.
Galatians 2:20
THIS is glimpse of the path after adoption.
YOU don’t have to have walked the foster and/or adoption path to know that sometimes (often?) small victories are hard and the day-to-day victories fade as new struggles crop up.
It can be a maddening cycle, but the outcome is securely in God’s hands. Draw from the well of His grace and mercy. Make no mistake, the story is still unfolding!! Redemption is possible with God!!
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