How Did We Get Here
The first several times I told someone we were adopting from China, I felt like I might as well have been saying I was flying to the moon on my home made space ship. Those words felt so crazy to me, so far fetched, so outside of my norm.
That's exactly right though. It wasn't our norm. It wasn't our nature to take an orphan and make her a daughter and a sister. But that IS Christ's nature.
He is, "Father to the fatherless, defender of widows - this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God sets the lonely in families." Psalm 68:5-6
Because we are Christ's followers, and because His Spirit is in us, he partners with us to accomplish his will. He decided to use two very ordinary people and redeem a little girl's story. As scary as it has been, I am so glad God has used us. We have heard the voice of God like never before, we have seen Him move what felt like literal mountains, and we have watched the hand of God work true miracles. We have witnessed Him in ways we would have missed otherwise.
So how did we get here?
Several years ago God literally broke my heart for the orphan. He gave me fresh eyes to the injustices in the world, and the great need for us to not just believe the Gospel, but to live it out. I felt so burdened by the cause of the orphan that I literally couldn't not do something.
God had really been working on my heart in the months leading up to fall of 2015. Through many things he had brought me to a place of living in surrender, trust, and obedience. In worship one day, I heard his voice say, "I only want good for you. Whatever I ask of you next, just say yes."
In November of 2015, after hearing a teaching on Queen Ester, and her bravery, I heard his voice loud and clear in say, "adopt."
My reaction was not one of bravery, but went something like this...
"Whoa, God! You want me, Robin Sanders, queen of selfishness, to turn my whole world upside down and adopt? Ummm, maybe I can just volunteer. Maybe I can just donate some money."
I wrestled with God on this for a few days. And let me tell you, wrestling with God is no fun! I know why Jacob had a limp after wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-32).
But I knew this was truly what God desired. Through God, I had faith that it was for His good, and my good, and Dane's good, and an orphan's good, and my children's good. Because that's just who God is! He works all things for the Good of those who love him. (Romans 8:28)
And you know what happened?
After the obedience came the courage.
I can honestly say that saying yes was the hardest part. After that God has taken care of everything else.
Notice that this was in the Fall of 2015. We didn't start the adoption process until December 2016. That's because God was driving this adoption "space ship" not me.
God had placed adoption on my heart, but Dane wasn't at the same place as me. This was a hard time for me. Hopefully I will share more about it another time. Eventually God did speak to Dane's heart. It wasn't through my nagging, or sharing adoption stories, or anything I did. After 9 months of my silence about all things adoption, God spoke to Dane. It was in November of last year, 2016, that Dane told me he wanted to adopt. I was blown away! I really thought it would never happen.
I know God's timing was perfect. If we would have jumped on the adoption journey as soon as God spoke those words to me, I would have done everything in my flesh, on my own. Instead, God brought us to unity and through this assured me that He was indeed in control.
And He has been. Through this whole journey, we have had a peace, and a hope, and a joy, that can only come from trusting in the God.
So maybe now you can understand a little more about why we decided to adopt. Maybe now, you don't think we are crazy. Maybe now you can see that God is just so sweet. So sweet, and loving, and amazing, and kind, and the list goes on and on.....
That's exactly right though. It wasn't our norm. It wasn't our nature to take an orphan and make her a daughter and a sister. But that IS Christ's nature.
He is, "Father to the fatherless, defender of widows - this is God, whose dwelling is holy. God sets the lonely in families." Psalm 68:5-6
Because we are Christ's followers, and because His Spirit is in us, he partners with us to accomplish his will. He decided to use two very ordinary people and redeem a little girl's story. As scary as it has been, I am so glad God has used us. We have heard the voice of God like never before, we have seen Him move what felt like literal mountains, and we have watched the hand of God work true miracles. We have witnessed Him in ways we would have missed otherwise.
So how did we get here?
Several years ago God literally broke my heart for the orphan. He gave me fresh eyes to the injustices in the world, and the great need for us to not just believe the Gospel, but to live it out. I felt so burdened by the cause of the orphan that I literally couldn't not do something.
God had really been working on my heart in the months leading up to fall of 2015. Through many things he had brought me to a place of living in surrender, trust, and obedience. In worship one day, I heard his voice say, "I only want good for you. Whatever I ask of you next, just say yes."
In November of 2015, after hearing a teaching on Queen Ester, and her bravery, I heard his voice loud and clear in say, "adopt."
My reaction was not one of bravery, but went something like this...
"Whoa, God! You want me, Robin Sanders, queen of selfishness, to turn my whole world upside down and adopt? Ummm, maybe I can just volunteer. Maybe I can just donate some money."
I wrestled with God on this for a few days. And let me tell you, wrestling with God is no fun! I know why Jacob had a limp after wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-32).
But I knew this was truly what God desired. Through God, I had faith that it was for His good, and my good, and Dane's good, and an orphan's good, and my children's good. Because that's just who God is! He works all things for the Good of those who love him. (Romans 8:28)
And you know what happened?
After the obedience came the courage.
I can honestly say that saying yes was the hardest part. After that God has taken care of everything else.
Notice that this was in the Fall of 2015. We didn't start the adoption process until December 2016. That's because God was driving this adoption "space ship" not me.
God had placed adoption on my heart, but Dane wasn't at the same place as me. This was a hard time for me. Hopefully I will share more about it another time. Eventually God did speak to Dane's heart. It wasn't through my nagging, or sharing adoption stories, or anything I did. After 9 months of my silence about all things adoption, God spoke to Dane. It was in November of last year, 2016, that Dane told me he wanted to adopt. I was blown away! I really thought it would never happen.
I know God's timing was perfect. If we would have jumped on the adoption journey as soon as God spoke those words to me, I would have done everything in my flesh, on my own. Instead, God brought us to unity and through this assured me that He was indeed in control.
And He has been. Through this whole journey, we have had a peace, and a hope, and a joy, that can only come from trusting in the God.
So maybe now you can understand a little more about why we decided to adopt. Maybe now, you don't think we are crazy. Maybe now you can see that God is just so sweet. So sweet, and loving, and amazing, and kind, and the list goes on and on.....
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