Baking the day away!!!

So tomorrow at my church they are doing a Beth Moore simulcast- I happen to LOVE Beth Moore and when I asked what I could do to help I was told- how about you do a bake sale to raise money for Pasha?! I love the heart of some of the people at my church. I love how some people just "get it". It blesses me so much when that happens. But I love the people who don't get it too. I think that's what God has been challenging me with. I didn't "get" adoption a year ago. I knew it was a great thing, I knew there where children who needed homes, but I didn't GET it. I didn't get that this IS God's heart. I didn't get that I could adopt. I thought there's NO WAY! $24 THOUSAND dollars- RIGHT! That was gonna happen. We would just one day have that amount of money laying around in a bank account to bring a child home. Then God introduced me to Project Hopeful. He brought back into my life a dear friend who I have known FOREVER but had lost contact with for about 7 years. He started placing people in my life who "Got" adoption and that impacted me. What a blessing that has been to me!

I pray that we would be able to be that flame into other people. I pray that through our story and our experiences that God would light a fire in many others for adoption. Not to neccessarily adopt themselves (which would be AMAZING!), but to look at adoption without questioning it. Without second guessing God. I used to second guess God. I've learned to just sit back and trust where He is leading. It's easy to SAY "where God guides He provides." It's a whole lot harder to live it. So I pray that others would be challenged to live that out. If God is leading you to adopt- TRUST HIM!!! If God is leading you to support someone adopting TRUST HIM. In general- whatever God is speaking to you- TRUST HIM!!!

Here's a little thing from Steven Curtis Chapman that I just love-
"It wasn't until our second adoption that I understood what God was doing with my family through adoption. I walked into our church on Sept 1, 2002, wholeheartedly convinced that we were not going to adopt a second time. During that service, our good friends, the Coley family, who have 4 biological and 5 adopted children, were brought up on stage for the dedication of their latest adopted child, a boy with special needs.

What happened next was almost as if God lifted my chin, and as clearly as I've ever heard Him speak to my heartm He said, "I've heard you sing the song 'Open the eyes of my heart', and I've heard you pray, 'I really want to know You and experience You.' I know you mean that." Then He showed me the family on stage, and He said, "There it is; that's my heart. That's your story; that's my story. This is a picture of the Kingdom of Heaven. There it is, in front of you."

And it was this family with whom we've walked some of the darkest parts of adoption. We've gone with them into treatment centers; we've shed tears together. They knew exactly what they were getting into, but still, here they were, saying "This is what God has called us to do. We know it's messy; we know it's uncomfortable, and it's going to turn our lives upside down, but this is God's heart."

Yet God didn't stop there. He said, "I delight in setting the lonely in families, so I'm going to keep pouring out my love for orphans , and I'm looking for hearts to pour it into. I'm looking for people who really want to do what I'm doing."

He didn't say, "If you don't do this, I'm going to be disappointed with you." Instead, it's as if, as a Dad, God put His arm around me and said, "You don't have to do this, but I'm inviting you in, because I want you to know Me, and I want our relationship to go deeper. If you really want to see Me show up, I want to take you on another adventure."

Isn't that amazing?? That is from a Show Hope devotional my dear friend Cindy gave me. I hope it spoke to you today- just as it did me.

Loves!