When Bart & I met, and began dating, one thing that was real important to me was to find a man who had a passion for orphans. I had the opportunity to travel the Cameroon, Africa and to Ethiopia, Africa and found that I was totally in love with Africa, and the burden I felt for the orphans was unbearable. In fact, if I wasn't to marry, I thought maybe my call on life was to be a missionary in Africa at an orphanage. I knew when I first heard about Bart and began pleading for God to give him to me as my husband, that there was a good chance he'd have a heart to adopt as well! He had been heavily involved in missions to Kenya. And so not to my surprise, he was totally on board with this mind set, and we hoped this would be a part of our future together.
The time line was never so clear to us, and we've tried to be surrendered to God's plan along the way. As we prayed about children and adopting, we felt the Lord leading us to have a biological child first. So we complied, and got some health insurance lined up, and believe it or not, the very next month I was pregnant! Who knew it would be that easy! :)
As most of you know, at that point, we hit major turbulence. In July of 2007, I was diagnosed with Leukemia and was 14 weeks pregnant. We were heart broken, and cried out to God, and then remembered the ROCK we were standing on. One of the verses He spoke to us only a few days after I was diagnosed was Psalm 30:1-3:
"I will exalt you, O Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me. O Lord my God, I called to you for help and you healed me. O Lord, you brought me up from the grave; you spared me from going down into the pit."
The Lord led us to a wonderful doctor at Swedish Hospital in Seattle and there we lived for the next 3 months. That is also where our miracle baby boy, Benji (as he likes to call himself) was born at 2 lbs, 7.9 ounces. He (and I) (and Bart for that matter!) lived at Swedish Hospital for the next three months. God gave us strength and comfort during that season of life, and on New Years Eve, of 2007, we moved home to Spokane with our Benji! We thank our Lord for the love and care He gave us through many loving people in Seattle, and for how He met our every need. I believe with all my heart that this journey with Him has set us up for a future to trust Him at every turn. And we say this often, we'd never want to go through that again, but we wouldn't trade it for the world.
I have now been in remission for 3 1/2 years, and Praise God for every new day. It's a blessing to have this life, a wonderful husband, and sweet and precious son, and more and more I realize what a blessing it is to be a daughter of God. We believe there have been several promises from God that He has given to us regarding healing and a long life. And I'll take it. I know I have a lot of work left to do in my own life, with our family, and for His Kingdom. So believe God I will!
However, just a week ago, God gave me a great revelation (through my husband) about releasing the fear that I carry almost everywhere like a two ton truck hooked on to my ankle. Bart lovingly helped me realize how the fear that gripped me was caused by not surrendering death over to God. How scary it's been for me to think about leaving this earth and a family I love so dearly. Yet I am so thankful for the way God used Bart's words help me surrender even death over to Him. I have been able to find the peace I've been longing for, by not holding on and trying to control God. There is such a freedom in releasing our lives to Him!
"So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. For in just a very little while, 'He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him. 'But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed but of those who believe and are saved." ~ Hebrews 10:35-39
We are now six months into the adoption process with the hopes of adopting either a young sibling group or a young boy or girl from Ethiopia. We would covet your prayers for God's guidance and God's will to be done in our family.
Well, there you have it, a tid-bit-long back drop of our story and how we wound up here adopting from Ethiopia!
