A Very Scary Incident

We often refer to Isaac as our "little engineer." Since he was very young, he has always been fascinated with learning how things work. When he was a toddler, if you gave him a car or truck he didn't immediately start pushing it around and saying "Vroom, vroom." Instead, he would flip it over and check out how all the wheels worked with a very intent look on his face. When we go to a swimming pool, he is more interested in how the "bug trappers" work than he is in swimming. He loves tools and gears. Overall, he is just a very mechanically-minded child with an insatiable curiousity for figuring things out. His curiousity is usually something that we view to be very positive, but this past weekend it almost killed him.

On Saturday, Luke had spent the morning changing the oil in our vehicles and cleaning our garage. Isaac had been down there with him for quite a while, because (of course!) he had been interested in watching and helping his daddy. After Luke was done, he came in to clean up because he was getting ready to drive over to a friend's house who needed some help fixing his truck. Once Luke was cleaned up and ready to go, he went out to the garage and climbed in the Yukon. He was getting ready to leave when he remembered he had to get something from the office. So he got out, retrieved whatever he needed from the office and then yelled upstairs to me, "Honey, I'm heading out now." I responded, "Okay--is Isaac still down there with you?" He said, "I don't know--I'll find him real quick." He started calling for Isaac. All of a sudden, Isaac pops out from underneath the Yukon and says, "I was under here Daddy, trying to figure out how everything works."

Shock ran through our bodies as we realized Luke had only been seconds away from running Isaac over with our 6,000 pound SUV. Luke remained calm and was able to sit down with Isaac and tell him how dangerous that was, and that he should never, under any circumstances, climb under a vehicle. I was upstairs praying, thanking God for saving our family from such a disaster. It took me a while to get over the fear over what had almost happened. All night I kept asking Isaac, "You're never going to climb under a parked car again, right?" I think he understands now how dangerous what he did was, and I don't think he'll ever do it again.

Incidents like this are going to happen throughout life, and I think we can use them with our children to teach them two things:

1) Safety- Make sure your children know to never climb underneath vehicles!
2) The realization that death can come at any moment. Isaac was not suicidal when he climbed under the Yukon. He wasn't thinking about death, he was thinking about engines and gears. We never know when our life might end, so we have to always be ready to stand before God.

This last point was one that we discussed a lot that night during our family devotion time before bed. We talk with the boys daily about the gospel, and we used this incident to show Isaac how seriously he needs to think about his own salvation. He has been very interested in spiritual things for quite a while, so hopefully God will use this scary experience to bring him to a saving faith in Christ.

On a lighter note, the rest of our Easter weekend was great. We had a lot of fun with friends and family and a wonderful worship service with our church on Sunday morning. We're still in the waiting stage with our adoption, but Aimee (our caseworker from our adoption agency) said they have been getting most of the phone calls from the hospital. Keep praying, and we'll let everyone know when we get "the call."

Stacie

Want to read a great book?

I am currently reading the book, "The Reformers and Their Stepchildren" and I must say it is fabulous. The book is rich in church history and essentially begins around 400 A.D. when Constantine was "converted." The book outlines the major negative changes that took place as a result of merging the church and state after Constantine's conversion. One of the results was the co-mingling of paganism with authentic Christianity. As you might except, the true believers objected to many of the new practices brought into the church and broke off from the newly formed Institutional church, which they called the "fallen" church.

There are essentially three groups that are compared and contrasted throughout the book.

1. The Catholic Church (Institutional Church)

2. The Reformers (later in church history, often referred to as Protestants)

3. The Stepchildren (the group of believers that left the Institutional church at the Constantinian change and met in catacombs and conventicles as inconspicuously as possible alongside of Catholics and Protestants from 400 A.D. to our time. They were horribly persecuted by both of them and killed in the millions. They were given many derogatory names over the years by their persecutors like Donatists, Wincklers, Catharer, and Anabaptists. Despite the persecution, they persevered as faithful followers of Christ.)

As a believer that is neither Catholic or Protestant, I find my roots in the free church tradition of the Stepchildren and have benefited greatly from the book. As one that has benefited from many of the Protestants writings on the doctrines of grace, I have often been troubled with understanding how they oversaw many of the atrocities carried out against the Stepchildren. This book has been very helpful in seeing why this happened. It does not let them off the hook or take lightly the persecution, but it also makes you understand how the Catholic and Protestant error of seeing the church (ekklesia) as a combination of church and state, by necessity obliged them to carry out these atrocities. It outlines the reformers struggles of wanting to embrace the free church tradition initially, but ultimately failing in finishing the reformation.

If you get a chance, read the book! It will be worth the effort.

Luke

Waiting on the Lord

Our home study is completed, so now all we have to do is wait. Waiting is something we have been learning a lot about lately. We waited for several months to see how and when God was going to lead us to adopt, and now we are waiting as we wade through the process of domestic adoption. Luke and I normally move fairly quickly when it comes to making decisions, so this has been a whole new experience for us. It has been good for us though in many ways.

I read something on a blog a few months ago that has completely changed my perspective on the purpose of waiting. I had always thought of waiting as a passive time, when our main goal is just to sit and wait patiently on God's timing for the end result that we are waiting for. This quote from Paul Tripp about Psalm 27 transformed my thinking:

"Waiting on God isn't about the suspension of meaning and purpose. It's part of the meaning and purpose that God has brought into my life. Waiting on God isn't to be viewed as an obstruction in the way of the plan. Waiting is an essential part of the plan. For the child of God, waiting isn't simply about what I'll receive at the end of my wait. No, waiting is much more purposeful, efficient, and practical than that. Waiting is fundamentally about what I'll become as I wait. God is using the wait to do in and through me exactly what He's promised. Through the wait He's changing me. By means of the wait He's altering the fabric of my thoughts and desires. Through the wait He's causing me to see and experience new things about Him and His kingdom. And all of this sharpens me, enabling me to be a more useful tool in His redemptive hands."

This was eye-opening for me. During times of waiting, we shouldn't be focusing primarily on simply the end that we are waiting for. We should realize that God is changing us as we wait, and getting us ready for what we're waiting for. It makes me sad when I think of all the times in my life I have been waiting for something (marriage, children, our house to sell, etc.) and all I could think about was the end result of getting what I wanted. I should have focused more on how God was getting me ready for what was going to happen, and what He was doing in me as I waited. Waiting shouldn't be wasted time, it should be time when we draw close to God as He prepares our hearts for what is to come.

I've thought about this a lot in regards to our adoption. We have no idea what God has planned with this adoption. We are applying to adopt a child of any race, which means it will most likely be a interracial adoption. Luke and I are very excited about this, but we realize there may be challenges ahead for us. We have no idea how smoothly the adoption process will go, or when we will get to bring our child home. There are so many questions we have as we wait, but we know God has it all in His control and He is using this time of waiting to prepare us for this amazing experience that lies ahead of us.

"Wait for the LORD;

Be strong and let your heart take courage;

Yes, wait for the LORD." Psalm 27:14

Update

We will not be adopting the baby boy we requested prayer for. His birthmother decided to raise him because it was just too hard to give him up for adoption. We understand why she felt that way, and pray that God will give her the physical, spiritual and emotional strength she needs to raise her two small children. It sounds as if she is in a pretty tough situation.

We still haven't finished our home study. We were supposed to have our two meetings with the social worker last week, but they got cancelled due to weather and sickness. She is supposed to come this Thursday night and Friday afternoon. We are looking forward to getting that done.

Our nursery is almost ready! It has been really fun getting all the baby stuff back out again. We are so excited to meet the baby God has picked out for our family!

Thanks for all your prayers!

Prayer request

On Friday we were alerted to a situation involving a birthmother that we would like to ask everyone to pray about. Our agency got a call from a hospital where a birthmother had given birth to a healthy baby boy that she wants to put up for adoption. Our agency wanted to know if we would be willing to put in our profile for the mother to choose from. We said we did, so the birthmother will be looking at it this week.

She only has one other possible family to pick from, so there's about a 50% possibility we may be adopting this little guy. We know this little baby boy's life is in God's hands and we know God already has the family picked out to raise him. Would you pray for God's protection over him while he waits for his family, and that God will give the birthmother wisdom, strength, and discernment as she makes this decision?

We'll keep you posted on what happens!

The end is near!

We are nearing the end of the paper chase and getting closer to what we are very excited about--adopting our child! We have completed our end of the paperwork and will begin our homestudy next Thursday. The social worker, Tiffany, will be coming to our home Thursday and Friday. After she completes her paperwork the agency will begin showing our profile to birthmothers. I'll be working on the profile tonight. We have to type up a few pages about our family and include pictures of our family and our home. Once that's done all we have to do is wait! I've been learning a lot about waiting lately. Maybe I'll share some thoughts on that in the next post...

This has been a very emotional and busy time for us, but we know God is guiding us and orchestrating this whole process. If it wasn't for our faith in Him, I think we would be completely stressed out! The Sovereignty of God is a beautiful thing. It makes situations like this so much easier because we know He is control, not us. Thanks for all your prayers!

Stacie

The Love of a Birthmother

Our adoption agency requires us to read at least two books from their recommended reading list as part of our preparation for adoption. When I first heard about this I was not excited. My initial thoughts were, "Just what we need-one more thing to do." That was a really poor attitude, but I just didn't think the books would be that interesting or helpful. But we have been trying to complete our requirements as timely as possible, so we quickly picked two from the list and ordered them on Amazon. The titles we picked are The Whole Life Adoption Book by Jayne E. Schooler and Because I Loved You: A Birthmother's View of Open Adoption by Patricia Dischler.

I decided to read the one by Patricia Dischler first since it was a personal story and looked a lot more interesting. I was not disappointed. It was one of the most eye-opening, tear-jerking books I have read in a long time. It completely changed the way I view birthmothers, opened my eyes to how much we should respect birthmothers, and made me realize how Luke and I should be faithfully praying for the birthmother of our future adopted child. This woman's story is amazing, and it shattered every stereotype or judgmental attitude I have ever had about women who give their babies up for adoption.

Often times we wrongly assume bad things about women who are giving their babies up for adoption. We assume they are sexually promiscuous, or that they have a bad family life with unsupportive families. We wonder "How could any woman give up her baby?" as if she somehow cares less about her child than those of us who keep our babies. One thing I learned from this book is that birthmothers love their babies as much as any mother, and that is exactly why they are putting their children up for adoption. If the birthmothers cared nothing for their child, they could have taken the easy way out and had an abortion. But they chose the difficult way, and it is all because they love their child enough to give him/her life and give it to them the best way they know how.

The author Patricia Dischler was 20 years old when she got pregnant, and she made a very selfless decision to put her son up for adoption because of situations in her life that would have made it virtually impossible for her to raise him. She desperately wanted to keep him, but she knew he would have a better life if she gave him to a family that was better suited to be parents. I won't get into her whole story for the sake of brevity, but I wanted to share one excerpt from her book. This is from the section after she had given birth to her son and was able to spend 2-3 days with him in the hospital before she had to give him up to the adoptive family.

"I spent hours holding Joe. I memorized his eyebrows. His toenails. Every wrinkle of skin. I found each part of his body that resembled mine or that of someone in my family. I mimicked his yawn, his cry. I was awed by his every move. The way he sucked on the knuckle of his thumb. The way his fist curled around the hem of my nightgown when he slept. The way his knees fell to the outside when he was asleep. I cherished everything about him, his crying when he was hungry, his soft snore when he slept, even the yellow streaks he made in his diaper. To this day I have a towel he spit up on in a box in my closet."

Reading about how much she loved her son and how hard it was for her to walk away from him in the hospital gave me such a burden for women that make this difficult decision. We are still very excited to be adopting a child, but have realized that with our joy of welcoming a child into our family there will be a woman mourning the loss of a child she has loved for nine months. Will you please join us in praying for this courageous woman who will be giving us this gift of her child? Pray for God to give her the emotional and physical strength to endure this trial, and that through this she might come to know Christ. And please keep praying for us, that God will give us wisdom and sensitivity in all issues surrounding this adoption.

Stacie