Early Christmas present!

Thanks so much for your prayers! We finally got the call today (after 11 weeks!) that our background clearance papers had come through! Now we will have our home study completed and be able to pass it on to the next place. There will possibly be another long wait, so please keep praying!

I would like to share a couple things that God is teaching me through all this. One is that while I was reading Revelation last night, I was reminded of how much Satan is not wanting adoptions to happen. In my understanding of Scripture, orphans and others who are often forgotten are who God wants as our top priorities. And just like the red dragon in Rev. 12 is waiting to snatch that baby away from Mary, and then he goes on “to make war against the rest of her offspring–those who obey God’s commandments and and hold to the testimony of Jesus” (v. 17), he is still doing his best to ruin the plans of God and so many families obeying Him through adoption. But Satan doesn’t win. God snatches the baby to Himself before the dragon can even blink an eye (v. 5)! And if God cares so much for orphans, then He is watching over them wherever they are, whether they are “home” with us or not. They belong to Him first and foremost! It is not about us or our wait–it is about those children, and we can rest assured that He is taking care of them! I have to trust Him with ALL my children–they are HIS first.

Secondly, I wanted to share another special gift God gave me today. Almost a month ago, I decided that I needed to be praying and fasting about this paperwork that was taking so long. So I chose Tuesdays to do so with today being the last day (before all the Christmas traveling). I also invited a good friend to participate with me. Today she asked to come over so we could pray together. When she got here I checked my email once more to see if there was any word, but there was none. So we talked about our emotions, about Scripture, and about what God was doing in us through this. Just before we were about to pray, I got the phone call with news that our paperwork had finally come! Not only was this a gift of good news, but also a gift of timing. He didn’t have to do things that way. So to me He was showing us that he was honoring our small sacrifice of food and heard our earnest prayers, and that He is right “here with us” in all of our struggles and our service to Him. Thank you Immanuel, for all of your gifts, great and small, during this Christmas season!