Welcome to another installment of What's Your Story? I am so thrilled to share with you Amy's story. I am not sure who find who...me or her...but I do know this...I am SO blessed to call her friend. Her journey has been beautiful to watch unfold and has given me such a heart for adoption. Watching how God has worked has been a gift.
Her family makes my heart smile.
List Maker
If you had met me ten years ago and then suddenly fast forwarded to the present, I don’t think you would think I was the same person. Back then, I thought I had it all figured out. I had a mental list of how my life was going to play out and I was really good at sticking to the list. The list was very detailed, but the basics were that we (my husband and I) were going to have two children…preferably two and a half years apart. (I told you it was detailed.) We were going to drive nice cars, never a minivan, never. We were going to go on yearly vacations and we were going to live the wonderful “American Dream”.
I think I must have brought God some good belly laughs with all my plans. You see, our life was going according to “our” plans. We had the two children...almost exactly two and a half years apart. We went on the yearly vacations and in many ways we were living “the dream”. Then one day, we began to feel that God was asking us to expand our family. Three kids? That was definitely not on my list.
At that point, God began to work a BIG transformation in my heart. He showed me over and over how our plans are not always HIS plans. He showed me the beauty only He can create when I let go and give all to Him. After a difficult season of miscarriages, I became pregnant with the blessing of our third child.
During the pregnancy, we were again reminded to give it all to Him, when the doctors found an unexplained ‘growth’ in our baby’s ultrasound. Some time between the first ultrasound to when we went to see the specialists, God cured our unborn baby girl of this unknown medical condition. At the next ultrasound with the specialists, it was gone, completely gone! The doctors could not explain it.
Many weeks later, on a rainy late night in December, our miracle girl was born. Our hearts were filled with joy and thankfulness for the beauty He had created. Our daughter was not on my original list, but she was on His and we were so thankful that He had opened our eyes to His plans.
We began to totally give it all to Him. No plans…just His will. We asked to have our eyes completely opened to His will for our lives. You know what it says in the Bible…Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV) “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Well, I am here to tell you, that is exactly what it means. God showed us His will. He called us to adopt from Ethiopia.
At the time, our new baby girl was only 6 months old. Many thought that we were crazy, but we had an indescribable peace. God opened our eyes to the plight of the orphan and showed us His heart for each and every one of them. He asked us to trust Him completely and then He took us on the journey of our lives. One year to the date that we started that journey, we were getting off a plane in Ethiopia to meet our son, Elijah. He is an absolute gift and we cannot imagine our lives or our family without him.
Today, life is nothing like it was ten years ago. However, I could not imagine life any other way. I now see that my life was never my own, but His. God has blessed us in ways that I could have never imagined to write on my lists. He has filled our lives with laughter, love and a greater understanding of God’s love for each of us.
Sometimes, as I am driving down the road in my *ahem* minivan, I start to make another mental list of things we should accomplish in the future. However, with one glance in the rearview mirror, I am reminded that God’s plans are bigger and better than I could ever dream. So, I will leave the list making up to HIM.
Amy blogs at Filled With Praise and would love to hear from you and visit your blog.
