Driving Through a Blizzard.

Many of you reading this right now were praying for us on Wednesday the 10th. It was a BIG day for us. We traveled to Charlotte, NC. to meet with our adoption coordinator stateside and the coordinator from Liberia. I won't waste words here telling you why, since the last post explains it.
The five hour drive there was uneventful. When we arrived at Christian Adoption Services I (Ami), was a little overwhelmed. I was going to meet one of the people I admire more than anyone else in the world. As the director was taking us on a tour of the offices I saw Angel (our stateside coordinator) out of the corner of my eye along with Georgia George walking through the parking lot. I was a little star-struck. Let me tell you; Angel has been on the front lines fighting for the children of Liberia for a long time. It would be "easy" for her to walk away from the calling the Lord has put on her life...But she continues to fight in spite of many frustrations and heartaches. She fights the fight of faith daily. Oh and that was sarcasm when I said it would be easy for Angel to just "walk away". No more easy for her than for Jonah who ended up in the belly of a whale doing exactly what God had planned to begin with.
On to the meeting. It started with Angel praying and really beseeching the Lord.
We received a report from Georgia on the children and oh how wonderful to hear how well they are doing. We asked about the possibility of Vivian, our children's foster mom adopting them---all the questions we had.
After an hour and a half our meeting needed to end.
Wow. We cried, we laughed, we were in the presence of the Lord.
After the meeting Adrian and I knew---we just knew the answer. I can't explain it.
We went out to eat and hung out at the mall near where Adrian did his internship after college. A short trip down memory lane and then we began our journey home. What was supposed to be a five hour journey took seven, YES seven hours! We were driving along and it started to snow then it started to really snow. We were coming up the mountain near Wolf Laurel ski resort and all of a sudden no road---Yes we were driving on a road but could not see the road! I tried calling our children but alas, no one answered so I called my tried and true prayer-warrior friend Ann. I explained the situation and she grabbed the two ladies she was with and they prayed us through this blizzard.
I don't know that we would have made it without those prayers, driving a mini-van with bad tires on a road like that! What was even more unbelievable was that the ONLY time I had cell service during that storm was during that phone call!
We wanted to stop and pull over for the night. There was nowhere to pull over. We simply had to keep going. We eventually came safely up and over the mountain and began to be able to see the lines on the road consistently and then the storm was gone. We made it safely home.
So just as the Lord, faith, and those prayers carried Adrian and I safely through that blizzard we have decided to keep walking this walk of faith called adoption. It may not look anything like what we once thought it would. It may not end or begin the way we would like---But as Adrian loves to quote our dear friend Dave, "It's not about us now, is it?"
It is not about how much we want to be the ones to tuck in our children at night or how mad it makes us feel that we can't bring them home right now or that we simply cannot understand WHY the Lord led us to these children, seemingly to adopt them and then adoptions were shut down "temporarily" making it a longer wait. Doesn't seem fair now does it? We suffer. We question. We have doubts. But here is what we do know---God is still God. He has called EVERY child of His to care for orphans and widows. He has called us to walk a walk of faith---Like the Israelites in the desert. He has called Adrian and I to care for Lydia and Leo. Out of all the orphans in the world, the God of the universe put these two in our lives. Their lives would be so different if we were not able to care for them the way the Lord has made possible. By allowing us to support them he has given them hope and a new life. So we continue to walk this walk. We know the Lord will bring them home in His timing. In the mean time we pray and we beg and we seek. And we continue to ask for others to stand alongside us to pray them home. We need battle buddies. So just like driving through that blizzard and feeling the prayers of our faithful friends, we will continue to "Drive through this blizzard" A wonderful high calling of caring for orphans. One day at a time and sometimes one moment at a time.
I cling to this Psalm today (Psalm 127) especially Verse 1 (a) "Except the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it..."