Facing Giants - Dane's Account

In the fall of 2015 Robin mentioned that she felt like she was being called to adopt. If she was called by God to adopt, that had some serious implications to me given that I’m her husband! I’ve always had a soft spot for children so the idea wasn’t the craziest I’d ever heard. The hurdle I had to clear was “change.” You see I’m not a fan of change. Not at all. I have clear cut plans and I really like to stick to them. Change is a “giant” of mine, I have a hard time mustering up the courage to tackle it. When I need to pick up a stone and march into battle like David did, I start over thinking and analyzing every detail.

Our plan was that after Ansley was born our family was complete. You know the “dream”? One boy, one girl, two dogs, nice home, topped off with a white picket fence. We had achieved that goal of a happy, healthy family or so I thought... God's plan for our family was much different than we thought.  He had a lot of work to do on my heart in order to prepare me for the blessings He had in store for us.

When you’re listening and in tune with the Holy Spirit you see Him at work in everything and everyone. Start thinking about international adoption and you start seeing transracial families everywhere! I had a deep desire to understand more of their story. Were they called into the ministry of adoption as well?

The icing on the cake so to speak came at a Men’s Retreat I attended in February of 2016. One of the speakers spoke about the spirit of adoption. Romans 8:15 says, 'The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."'  We as children of God are adopted into His family. He receives us with all of our flaws and our brokenness. He wants us to live filled with His power and not be afraid. He desires to pull us out of our comfort zone and partner with us in His ministry. That is hard to do if you live with a spirit of fear in your life. Honestly, I’m not sure anyone else in attendance that weekend heard what I did but like Jacob I was limping!

The next hurdle I felt like we had to clear was the financial implications of adoption and a third child. Kids aren't cheap! Unfortunately for Robin, I have a degree in economics and I really like our financial life in order. So I set out to prove on paper that the cost associated with adopting and raising another child would work. I’m a farmer by profession and we had recently been through some tough years financially. I’m secretly laughing to myself saying, “God must be crazy because there is no way this will work on paper much less in the real world.” I ran the numbers and guess what? It didn’t work on paper, not then anyway. So I told Robin that we simply couldn’t afford to adopt at that time.

At the same time I told Robin that it didn’t look promising, I told God, “If this is your plan for my family, then you make it happen, the ball is in your court.” As the summer rocked along the crop looked decent but nothing that I felt like would free up enough cash to adopt a child. In early August I thought we were looking at a break even year at best. And then, the rains started falling. It was like God opened up the heavens and poured out just what my crops needed at just the right time. A couple months later we had moved into harvest time, that time of year where you learn the outcome of all your hard work. A few fields in and God was blowing me away. I felt like He was showing off. The crop was twice as good as it should have been and all of a sudden I remembered my prayer or challenge I’d made God back in the spring.

When I got home that night I told Robin we needed to talk.  I told her what God had done and how the crop was unbelievable.  I also told her that it was time to seriously pursue the Adoption. I’m pretty sure she was in disbelief after going through months of silence and doubt. I reassured her that I was all in because my Heavenly Father had done the impossible, he had made a way were there wasn’t one.

Me, being a numbers guy,  had a goal in mind financially in order to feel comfortable with the adoption. I wanted the total amount of the adoption and Travel fees in savings before we started. Guess what? In a way that only God could move, not only did we have the fee in full but ten times that amount. I’m guessing my creator knew me well enough that He didn’t want to leave me any wiggle room to back out!

So the next time you feel like God is calling you into something scary, bigger than yourself or your abilities, remember who we serve. We can all be like David and overcome the “giants” in our lives if we allow God to be in control.