Christmas morning

We received a Special Delivery in the mail today from our Adoption Agency!

Opening that box was like being a kid on Christmas morning!!! It was so exciting as I pulled out each book and looked at the titles, just imagining all that we are about to learn to better equip us to parent our children, and saw the sweet soft monkeys and adorable shirts. I am so excited as I sit here looking through it all! CCI calls it our "Adoption Education Toolbox," but it looks way more FUN than any tools my husband has!

Those 2 little monkeys caused a lump in my throat... as I look at them I think about the 2 children that we had planned to adopt, to rescue, to bring into our family, to teach what the unconditional love of a mother and father is. They are in the Lord's hands. Our Adoption details are in His sovereign control. We just want to be obedient and follow down the path of His plans for our family.

I'm so excited to start reading these books with my husband, preparing ourselves for what lies ahead.
Even now as we are uncertain about where God is leading, we are trying to be obedient to follow Him in faith, even if we can only see our next step and not the miles of road ahead. We know that the Lord cares for the orphan, the fatherless, and we know He is calling us to adopt. So we will continue to pray for wisdom and clarity, and we will GET TO WORK on our adoption reading! =)

So encouraged by God's heart for orphans throughout scripture! Here are just a few that I'm meditating on:

 “Do not take advantage of the widow or the fatherless.  If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword." -Exodus 22:22-24

"He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing." -Deut. 10:18

"Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge." - Deut. 24:17

"When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands." - Deut. 24:19

"But you, God, see the trouble of the afflicted; you consider their grief and take it in hand.
The victims commit themselves to you; you are the helper of the fatherless." -Psalm 10:14

"Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation." -Psalm 68:5

"Defend the weak and the fatherless; uphold the cause of the poor and the oppressed." -Psalm 82:3

~Bethany