...to love and let go...

"are you sure you want to do this? adopt? Do you understand what it could do to your family?"

"once you adopt you are now an adoptive mother"

"I just don't want you to get hurt".....

Surprisingly, or maybe not so much, I have gotten quite a few negative responses about adoption.  Here is what I want to say to you, those who question, disagree or feel the need to give me every "warning" possible...

We plan on having some kind of hurt through this adoption.  We do not plan to hide the fact that this baby is adopted.  We want her to know immediately and all growing up that we wished for her, prayed for her and that God delivered her.  We have this understanding of all children that they are not ours....they are God's.  If he so chooses to entrust us with a child for a couple months and then have that child delivered back to the hands of the birth mother...than so be it.  His grace is sufficient enough for me...

A wise friend told me just today that it's everyone biggest fear...to love and let go.  We plan to take this journey because we feel God is calling us there.  You can disagree with our decision, you can question it and you can give all of the negative advice you want but here is the thing, we have been going on a long private journey with God through this and we are going to trust Him fully through it.  God's plan is incredibly PERFECT...who am I to question it? Maybe we won't bring home a child, maybe no one will pick us.  Maybe we will bring home a child and maybe that child will be taken away.  Maybe we do bring home a child and we are blessed to raise her and love her as our own...but eventually she is going to want to find who her real mother is or her real father is...and we are going to have to let go...no matter where we start or how we start..there is going to pain sooner or later.  BUT there's this verse that talks about God's strength being bigger than our weaknesses.  It's a verse that talks about grace and that grace is given over and over and over again...it's never ending and it's sufficient enough. 

"But He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'".

I want to ensure you who question our motives....we are not immature in this...we are not children making a quick, out of the blue decision.  God has been in this for many many years.  My heart has been for adoption since before I was married (9+ years ago) and through prayer God has given my husband a heart for it.  This journey of my hearts desire has been ongoing and we are choosing to trust God in it.  We never said it would easy and we never said there would be no hurt...but we are okay with the hurt that will be involved in it because it's that much more of an opportunity to learn from our Father.  I will not pass that up. He works for the good. 

7 literal days or the one million years day....??

So friday we took our classroom to the Museum!

we had so much learning about all of the dinosaurs.  Of course as an adult I took in so much more but the kids really had fun exploring and learning.  If you can't tell by this picture...they were easily distracted....

Of course my brother and I got on a discussion regarding dinosaurs, science and the Bible.  Timelines and theories.   After our day together my husband and I had an event to attend at church and when we got back at 9:30 my brother got the movie Genesis Code up on the tv from netflix and we sat and watched it.......got my wheels turning and my brain thinking....creation...can it be more than a literal 7 day creation? Could it be true that one day could really be a million years and science and the Bible mesh together? 

Now I am no theologian....I have not taken classes in it or claim to know it all...in fact I have many people in my life who would call me a simple minded Christian...conservative.  Just an fyi...I'm okay with that.  There is a reason God says in the Bible to come to Jesus like a child would.....small, simple and in love.

Here are my thoughts.  God knows the beginning and the end.  He knew the beginning and the end since the beginning.  He knew what the world would turn into and what his people...what his children would do.  God knew how we were going to measure time and he spoke it in the Bible.  "There was morning and there was evening...the first day".  Thanks to my wise husband who tells me all of the time, "major on the majors and minor on the minors".  To some this may be a major...to me it's a minor.  I am simple minded and some may call me uneducated but I read the story of creation and take it literally.  God created everything in 7 literal days.  Science tries to prove there was no creation and then you have some Christians who use science to try and prove creation.  But here is the thing....the Bible...it's not a story about creation...it's a story about redemption.  The minute we start taking the Bible and poking holes in it ... start adding and changing things we start poking holes in the Gospel.  And when we start poking holes, isn't it really just trying to justify our sins? Isn't it just trying to make us feel better? Isn't it cheapening grace? "There is no hell, everyone no matter what you believe will live eternally in heaven, adultery, lusting, lying, stealing, cheating, homosexuality, pre-marital sex...all of that is okay.  It was translated wrong and the correct greek word that was used doesn't mean that"....blah blah blah.  You're justifying... and when you poke holes in the gospel and justify your life by doing so you are saying to God, "your sons sacrifice wasn't needed".  You are slapping God directly in the face and that my friends is a dangerous place to be because there will be a day where we will see God face to face...and He will either know you as His child or He will not know you at all.   

So scoff at me, call me simple minded, uneducated or conservative (because that now is a bad thing) - but I want to always have a child-like faith.  I want to always see God the way He wants me to see Him and I want to read the Bible as my redemption story.

"Brace yourself like a man; I will question you and you will answer me.  Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand.  Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone - while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?  Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'? Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn it's place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it? ... Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?  Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all of this."

Job 38

God is eternal...He knows....we do not. This is not God mocking Job or being sarcastic...this is God confirming His eternal, Majestic and ever so powerful state.  This is God saying, "I got this"...This is God reminding us that we are His...that HE CREATED US.  There are things we will not understand (like the trinity, creation, pre-destination) and those things He might not even share with us in our eternity....but does it matter? Is it a major or a minor? We have no idea what it was like when nothing turned into everything.....I believe in a God who could have done that in seconds...so whether it was 7 days or a 7 one million days...the fact is that this God...he.is.amazing.breathtaking.majestic. powerful.infinite.eternal.