It is 3:30 AM and I can't sleep. It is hard to believe that the Lord would give us such a gift! i feel crazy for even considering this! God has given me an intense burden. Thankfully my wonderful husband, my parents and a few friends are helping to carry this burden with me. Where do I begin sharing the magnitude of this story?
A few months ago I learned of a baby born premature that needed prayers. I immediately began praying for him. But I also had a real sense of urgency about needing to know more about him. I believe I shared with some of you this concern that I had for him. I knew very little details, but felt some connection with this tiny little baby clinging to life. Smitty and I would talk about him and pray for him. We knew he would someday be eligible for adoption. At one point we thought maybe we are his parents... that is why the concern we shared for him.
Fast forward a few months now... Well, as you know I am pregnant. We are expecting our third child. We are so thrilled about this little one! We were honestly surprised (and very grateful!) that baby Smitty #3 would come this way. If you have followed our blog you know that we have prayed about adopting again. The Lord has been moving in our hearts over the last several months to investigate domestic adoption... for reasons we did not understand. We have always been passionate about adoption, but thought we would adopt internationally again. Through many circumstances the Lord has opened our eyes to the needs of children right here that are lonely and need families. Our sweet little pregnancy had all of it on hold!
So long story made a little shorter, we have prayed for this sweet baby boy for months. I have tried for a long time to think of another way we can help this baby. Smitty and I spoke at the Adoption Expo in Raleigh a couple weekends ago. The Lord continually spoke over us His love and provision for orphans. For one reason or another, mainly doubt, we did not talk about it to one another. We shared later that we felt a little ridiculous...there is a place in my heart that feels like we are his mommy and daddy. Smitty had come to the same conclusion! But of course THAT doesn't make any sense! We're pregnant! We have a 3 year old and a 2 year old! But the intensity of the burden increased. Sunday at church a dear friend spoke and shared how the Lord had been speaking to her. It all clicked to me later that day! The Lord had speaking this to us and we have been turning our ears! "We can't do this! That's crazy! He would never ask us to do this? What about Micah and Elizabeth? What will our families say about having 4 kids under 4? What will we do financially? What about my job? Will we have room in our home?" But we would all still be orphans if it weren't for Jesus. So, why not?
After much prayer we believe that we need to be obedient to what the Lord is speaking over our hearts and pursue this little baby boy for his adoption.
We don't understand this except to say that the Lord knows what He's doing! We have no idea of the details but we certainly covet your prayers. The cost may be more than we can handle, but God's got that detail covered too. We will keep you posted. We cannot share many details yet... but will as we can. Please pray for the ways you can help in the life of this precious child. There are still quite of bit of hurdles; we need lots of prayer!
We are praying for Micah and Elizabeth that their hearts may come to understand the intense love of their Father through this process. Hopefully they will see just how the Lord choses to love His children and pursues them with His undying love.
Some may say we are crazy. We just believe that the Lord's heart is for the orphan and He wants to use us in this way. So, we believe this is a God sized thing that only He can pull off!
PRAY!
Ephesians 1:4-6 NIV
4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.
