Annnnd we are moving...
Not until May, but Kev has taken a job as an executive pastor at a church in Wilmington, NC. My husband talks about this transition in our church's student ministry blog. It is extremely exciting and extremely sad all at the same time, which works out because my brain and heart have been going 1,000 directions lately anyway. He is going to be commuting and that's one thing we have never done. So, we are in new territory and considering my intensely extroverted personality can't handle being alone for five minutes, we'll see how this goes.
Oh, and it obviously seemed like a great time to add two furry members to our family. I have mixed emotions--shocking. I'm pretty sure the girls got the best end of the deal, considering I will be doing most of the work. The neighborhood kids are almost as excited as my girls. Our house has been pretty popular the past week or so, even over the houses with trampolines. Can I just say, guinea pigs poop...a lot and changing their bedding isn't something the girls can do on their own. This is where I come in (insert eye roll). Maybe I should put the neighborhood kids on a bedding changing rotation, you know--since they are all so excited.
Soooo, how does this transition affect our adoption? We just updated our home study last month and will need to do that again in the near future once we have a new home and live in a new state. That is the biggest change, but, this will not slow us down or affect things negatively. It is just necessary paperwork that will need to be updated when the time comes. We will have to update our immigration paperwork, but that needs to be done in the near future as well, so the timing is pretty decent.
As I look at timing, life and guinea pigs, I see God's hand orchestrating the entire process. Those who know our history and some of the challenges life has thrown at us know there was a season in our life in which had no clear answers for why God sent us certain places and why God allowed certain things to happen to us. Now we are seeing some of the answers.
One of those places God sent us was West Virginia. We spent nine months in West Virginia serving as missionaries with an agency that eventually robbed us and many other of our missionary friends of our financial support. Our time there wasn't all bad but the experience there was very painful and honestly, something I have many times wished had never happened. Recently, we received a message from one of our West Virginia missionary friends congratulating Kev and asking if we would live near some missionary friends they had connected us with a few years ago for a mission trip which happened to be in Wilmington. Then it hit us. Because of a series of connections from our brief and kind of miserable time in West Virginia my husband is stepping into a new job we most likely would never have known about if we had not been in a "holler"serving God in West Virginia with what turned out to be a corrupt organization. On top of that, because of the opportunity given to us by our current church to minister after we had stepped back from ministry life for a season due to life craziness, we were well-equipped and my husband was even better prepared to take this new job. God used every bit of the apparent insanity to His glory and I am so grateful to have some clear answers about how He planned on using such a difficult part of our history.
Not until May, but Kev has taken a job as an executive pastor at a church in Wilmington, NC. My husband talks about this transition in our church's student ministry blog. It is extremely exciting and extremely sad all at the same time, which works out because my brain and heart have been going 1,000 directions lately anyway. He is going to be commuting and that's one thing we have never done. So, we are in new territory and considering my intensely extroverted personality can't handle being alone for five minutes, we'll see how this goes.
Oh, and it obviously seemed like a great time to add two furry members to our family. I have mixed emotions--shocking. I'm pretty sure the girls got the best end of the deal, considering I will be doing most of the work. The neighborhood kids are almost as excited as my girls. Our house has been pretty popular the past week or so, even over the houses with trampolines. Can I just say, guinea pigs poop...a lot and changing their bedding isn't something the girls can do on their own. This is where I come in (insert eye roll). Maybe I should put the neighborhood kids on a bedding changing rotation, you know--since they are all so excited.Soooo, how does this transition affect our adoption? We just updated our home study last month and will need to do that again in the near future once we have a new home and live in a new state. That is the biggest change, but, this will not slow us down or affect things negatively. It is just necessary paperwork that will need to be updated when the time comes. We will have to update our immigration paperwork, but that needs to be done in the near future as well, so the timing is pretty decent.
As I look at timing, life and guinea pigs, I see God's hand orchestrating the entire process. Those who know our history and some of the challenges life has thrown at us know there was a season in our life in which had no clear answers for why God sent us certain places and why God allowed certain things to happen to us. Now we are seeing some of the answers.
One of those places God sent us was West Virginia. We spent nine months in West Virginia serving as missionaries with an agency that eventually robbed us and many other of our missionary friends of our financial support. Our time there wasn't all bad but the experience there was very painful and honestly, something I have many times wished had never happened. Recently, we received a message from one of our West Virginia missionary friends congratulating Kev and asking if we would live near some missionary friends they had connected us with a few years ago for a mission trip which happened to be in Wilmington. Then it hit us. Because of a series of connections from our brief and kind of miserable time in West Virginia my husband is stepping into a new job we most likely would never have known about if we had not been in a "holler"serving God in West Virginia with what turned out to be a corrupt organization. On top of that, because of the opportunity given to us by our current church to minister after we had stepped back from ministry life for a season due to life craziness, we were well-equipped and my husband was even better prepared to take this new job. God used every bit of the apparent insanity to His glory and I am so grateful to have some clear answers about how He planned on using such a difficult part of our history.
Philippians 4:19 "And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in Christ Jesus."
I have always looked for God to supply my needs, but in West Virginia my need was a perceived need and I wasn't looking for the answers to be "in Christ Jesus." I was angry at the people that stole from us, jealous of friends with easier ministry paths and just mad at God for what I saw as Him not taking care of us. The most important part of that verse in Philippians is the part I missed about God supplying my need--that need is found..."in Christ Jesus."
Our true need isn't food, money, or even family. Those are all short-term man-centered needs, they cannot fix our eternal problem--separation from God. The only solution is a relationship with Christ Jesus. This got me thinking about adoption and family. I have said many times our greatest desire in adoption was to give a child a home and a family. That's true, but not completely. The home and family is not just with us, but "in Christ Jesus."
A part of me wants to live in the same house, same town, with my kids next door until the day I die. The other part of me sees the world in need of a Savior and wants to GO, wherever, whenever, local, foreign--it doesn't matter. I see the boldness and compassion of my children and can see them in Africa or South America as missionaries when they grow up. I already watch them tell their friends about God and invite people to church. I'm sure the reality of what God will do with all of us is somewhere in between my extremes. But, I recognize my selfishness in my desire to hang on to what I am comfortable with, including my children. This changes my viewpoint on family and love. Loving them enough to freely release them to do God's work as He sees fit and allow Him to do the same with me and Kevy.
Maybe I'm crazy. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that thinks about this stuff when my kids are 6 and 8! But, here we are moving as a result of God's planning, us growing and a relationship we only could have gained through our time in good ole West Virginia.
I have always looked for God to supply my needs, but in West Virginia my need was a perceived need and I wasn't looking for the answers to be "in Christ Jesus." I was angry at the people that stole from us, jealous of friends with easier ministry paths and just mad at God for what I saw as Him not taking care of us. The most important part of that verse in Philippians is the part I missed about God supplying my need--that need is found..."in Christ Jesus."
Our true need isn't food, money, or even family. Those are all short-term man-centered needs, they cannot fix our eternal problem--separation from God. The only solution is a relationship with Christ Jesus. This got me thinking about adoption and family. I have said many times our greatest desire in adoption was to give a child a home and a family. That's true, but not completely. The home and family is not just with us, but "in Christ Jesus."
A part of me wants to live in the same house, same town, with my kids next door until the day I die. The other part of me sees the world in need of a Savior and wants to GO, wherever, whenever, local, foreign--it doesn't matter. I see the boldness and compassion of my children and can see them in Africa or South America as missionaries when they grow up. I already watch them tell their friends about God and invite people to church. I'm sure the reality of what God will do with all of us is somewhere in between my extremes. But, I recognize my selfishness in my desire to hang on to what I am comfortable with, including my children. This changes my viewpoint on family and love. Loving them enough to freely release them to do God's work as He sees fit and allow Him to do the same with me and Kevy.Maybe I'm crazy. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one that thinks about this stuff when my kids are 6 and 8! But, here we are moving as a result of God's planning, us growing and a relationship we only could have gained through our time in good ole West Virginia.
Comments