Plural Referral - Part II

Thank you for your sweet comments and emails! We are saving every one of them. Yesterday was a whirlwind with packing and shipping the two care packages and preparing for our youth graduation banquet ... but it all got done, and today - well, today is just as crazy. Our "Cupcakes & Candles" fundraiser is tonight! Here is part II of our testimony. May He be glorified.

Referral (Make it Plural)
Part II
Tuesday, April 21, my day began as usual at 5. I felt tired, sort of confused and at peace all at the same time, if that’s even possible. Clayton told me he felt the same way. Before he left to drive the school bus at 6:30 he prayed from his heart. He asked God to very clearly reveal His plan to us. He stated our desire to be obedient and that if God would orchestrate the path, we would follow.

Little did we know our world would be rocked today! At 8 the phone rang, and it was Karla. We had been praying for an answer … and she told me we had a referral! What?!? Less than a day earlier we had asked if we could adopt two children and today we have a referral. Then again, we had asked God to make His plans very clear to us.

Clayton came home as soon as he got off the bus and we reviewed the file but avoided looking at the picture. It’s truly amazing, the transformation God made on our hearts. Clayton was not at all ready for this – until God presented it. And then we both knew this was clearly His plan for us. We weren’t really afraid of his age, his special need or even the fact his paperwork was over four years old. We prayed, talked, prayed, cried and prayed some more. In the end we knew we were where God wanted us.
We called Karla back and told her we definitely wanted to adopt this beautiful boy but did not want to jeopardize our referral of a toddler. We were still waiting on a clear “Yes” from C*AA to the question of adopting two children.

As I was driving that evening I heard a song I’d listened to a hundred times, only this time it resonated in my heart. Don’t Get Comfortable by Brandon Heath. “I’m gonna move this mountain, then I’m gonna move you in. This is not yesterday. You were standing on my shoulder, now you’re standing on the edge .. you are gonna live like you used to dream.” Our God was already moving some seemingly unmovable mountains … and He was allowing us to be a part of His plan.

By 10 a.m. Wednesday, April 22, it seemed we weren’t going to get an answer. We had already fallen hopelessly in love with this boy, and hadn’t even looked at the one photo we had received. We continued to pray and guard our hearts as we waited. At 10:45 as I was sitting at the school waiting for Kayden my phone rang and Karla was calling with the most amazing God-sized news – C*AA had granted our request to adopt two children! We are completely aware that this doesn’t happen every day. We also know there is nothing special about us apart from our Lord, and only His intervention gleaned the response we had been praying for.

We were now faced with another wait – the wait for our daughter to appear on the shared list. C*AA did not want us to lock our son’s file until we had received the second referral, and we were required to submit both Letters of Intent at the same time.

A God-sized adventure like this doesn’t come without attempted intervention from the Enemy. He has tried to rear his ugly head in many ways, but our prayer has been that God would help us to keep our gaze upon Him, draw from His strength, affirm ourselves in His ways and stay armed with the Truth.

We are not taking His blessings for granted, and we don’t want to grow complacent and comfortable. We remain in earnest prayer as He continues to ‘landscape’ as one of my friends said!
Part III still ahead …