Fastforward - Tuesday January 31, 2012

I’ll have to go back and catch you up on the last two weeks, but for now, we are requesting that you pray for us and Maria.

It’s no coincidence that the day after we send out email informing all of our family and friends that we’re going to be adopting Maria we find out that two other Russian families are interested in her. Apparently they take priority over foreigners. At least one of the families has begun the process of getting together their paperwork. When we heard the news earlier this afternoon, our hearts sank! However, since then we have been reminded constantly of God’s faithfulness.

We each received the news separately by email at work. I read it in disbelief. For those of you ladies who have had miscarriages, I don’t mean to minimize the severity and heartbreak of that, but I think I felt a little bit of how it must be. The difference is obviously that Maria is still here. And while it is a blessing that Maria is so wanted (think of it – from orphan to 3 families wanting her in a matter of days!), it’s hard to picture her with another family when I’ve been affectionately thinking of her as “my little girl.”

On my drive home from work, I was trying to listen to K-Love, a Christian radio station, but the reception was very poor. In the first 1½ minutes I was listening, I was only able to make out one phrase, and it was, “You are Father to the fatherless.” Wow!! What a blessing from the Lord! It’s amazing how he uses everyday things around us to let us know that He knows our hearts, that He’s listening to us and comforting us. Of course that one phrase that I heard spoke of orphans, of even a little girl named Maria who doesn’t know the love of an earthly father but still has a Heavenly Father.

Another thing I was reminded of on my way home was that when Daniel and I shared our big news with our families, we talked to them about the possibility that other families could step in and adopt her before us. We also told of how we know that no child will ever truly be ours – we are merely stewards of what God gives us. Remember, each child was His before she born, and each child will be His after. Our time here on Earth is just a vapor.

I was also reminded of all the times we have prayed for Maria over the last three weeks that the Lord would do what would bring Him the most glory. Secondly, we prayed that He would do what is best for Maria. We know that God is sovereign and that He works all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).

Finally, right before I got home, God brought to mind the Sunday School lesson that I had helped with a couple of weeks ago (the one I wrote about in the January 14th post). My topic that morning was “Jehovah Shalom” – the God of Peace! God knew I would use what I had learned about Him two weeks ago to bring me peace today. He IS peace, and He gives us His peace. His peace is giving me comfort tonight.

We learned a little more about what was going on… Apparently Maria had only been on Reece’s Rainbow for two days when we expressed interest in her. Supposedly there was no interest in her in Russia at the time; although, the volunteers there had been working hard to find a family for her for the past two years. One of the biggest issues is the expense of all the medical care Maria currently needs. We found out that this could prevent the Russian families from being permitted to care for Maria. Unfortunately, we may not know the outcome of their proceedings for months.

Nonetheless, we are pushing forward and remaining obedient to God’s revelation that she is our daughter. We are not slowing down. We’re going to keep getting our paperwork ready so that when something falls through with the other families, we will be ready to bring her home. We will do this until we have her or until the Lord closes the door. For now, we see this as just a roadblock, not a dead end.

Tonight we spent quite a bit of time in the Word and in prayer. While the following two verses are both Daniel’s and my favorites, he sort of stumbled upon them tonight and they were a true gift from the Lord, offering newfound meaning:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

I returned to Hebrews tonight. In the Bible that I was using, I noticed a note that I had written probably a few years back. It simply said “faith = confident assurance.” Faith isn’t just wishful thinking. It is CONFIDENCE, it is ASSURANCE in a God who loves us and knows best. And better yet, it goes perfectly with the title of our blog “A Leap of Faith” as here we are yet again, taking a leap of faith and trusting in the Lord. I’ll end with the following verses, which were a huge encouragement to me:

“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood… and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith… Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful… Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Hebrews 10:19-23, 11:1