Praying While You Wait: Prayers for Adoptive Parents

Prayingwhileyouwait1-700x525As Adam and I wait for our final piece of paperwork to arrive at our adoption agency, we continue to pray for our children daily, and ask that God would be so kind to bless us with them. This is a habit we have cultivated since the early days of our marriage, and has proved to be very helpful during our wait (along with some other habits).

Certainly our theology shapes our prayers. What we know to be true about the character of God will move our hearts, and words, as we boldly approach the King with our requests. In addition to that, the adoption education we have received during our wait has greatly influenced our prayers as well. There is so much we have learned over the past two years, much of it a heart-wrenching reminder of the brokenness that comes with every single adoption situation.

If you are also waiting for an adoption placement, we understand the “heart-pain” that accompanies your prayers. I hope this list blesses you, and encourages you to boldly approach our gracious God with your requests. If you have been following our journey, and feel led to pray for us, we would love for you to use this list to pray with intentionality.

We know that God hears every single prayer we lift to Him, (whether He chooses to bless us with children through adoption or not). We continue to walk by faith, and ask that He would do so.

1) That they would be protected from harm

We, especially women, love to be in control, don’t we? If God has children for us, somewhere in the foster system, there is absolutely nothing we can do right now to protect them from harm. All we can do is ask for God, the Father of the fatherless (Psalm 68:5) to keep our children safe. God is sovereign over insignificant events, like the end of a sparrow’s life (Matthew 10:29), He is more than able to protect our children and keep them safe from harm.

2) That all of their needs would be met

We don’t know the type of conditions our children may be living in right now. I am constantly wondering if they are with their biological mom and dad, in a potentially unsafe environment? Or are they with a loving foster family? Maybe they are still in their mother’s womb? We have no idea, but we frequently ask that God would meet all of their needs, whatever those may be. This is similar to the above request. We ask that they would have food to nourish their bodies, shelter over their heads, and clothing to keep them warm. We especially pray that they would feel loved and protected by those caring for them, and by God who cares for them infinitely more.

3) That their loss would be minimal

This is a tough one to pray for. Adoption is born out of loss and brokenness. Whether the child is a newborn infant, a teenager in foster care, or a toddler from Africa, there is always loss involved.

I always get squirmy when I see adoption sentimentalized, giving the appearance of “they all lived happily ever after.” Don’t get me wrong, I love a good adoption story, and I have wept over quite a few “gotcha-day” videos! Adoption is beautiful, Biblical, and emulates the heart of the gospel. However, in order for us to gain children into our family, these children will lose everything and everyone they have ever known.

Do you see the tension here, in regard to our prayers for them? Any child who is adopted will experience a great loss when they enter an adoptive family. That is inevitable. The two-day-old infant has lost the comfort of their mother’s voice, and the warmth of her womb. The older child from foster care has lost (potentially) years with their biological mom and dad, perhaps multiple foster families who they attached to, and maybe even siblings. The child adopted from another country has lost all of that, along with their birth culture, language, and familiar food.

We need to try and understand what these precious children have been through, and connect with how deeply their hearts have been broken over the loss they have experienced. Our compassion must grow for them. We know our children will experience great loss when they enter our families. They are losing everything they know, and will enter a place that is new, foreign, and possibly terrifying for them. We pray their loss, whatever it may be specific to their situation, would be as minimal as possible.

4) That they would experience healing

Going along with loss, we pray that our children would experience great healing, in spite of the circumstances that brought them into our family. We know they will carry that loss with them for the rest of their lives. We also know that God, our great healer, is absolutely capable of performing surgery on their hearts. He is near to the broken hearted and saves the crushed in spirit (Psalm 34:18). We pray that one day our children will trust God to heal them too. He knows their pain more than we ever will.

5) That their hearts would be soft, and open, to trust and obey us

When we begin to understand the loss that our children will experience, it’s understandable that it may be difficult for their little hearts to trust us right away. We often pray that their hearts would be softened now, and that they would easily attach to us, bond with us, and trust us to provide for them. Undoubtedly, we will need to build their trust. This is very different from a child, born into a family, who has had their needs met from the start. We ask that God would be working on our children now, wherever they are, opening their hearts to trust again, and eventually obey us as their mom and dad.

6) That they would come to know Jesus and be saved at a young age

By far, this is the most important of our daily requests. Would we love to have healthy, well-adjusted, obedient, attached children? Of course we would, and we pray for that boldly! But, none of that matters if they don’t know Jesus, and ultimately trust and obey HIM. We frequently pray that God would be revealing Himself to our children, and that He would be opening their eyes to Him right now, no matter where they are, or how old they are. We desire for our children to come into a saving faith at a young age.

If you pray one thing for our children, let this be it.

“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them” (Hebrews 7:25).

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RedemptiveHomemaking.com_April is a follower of King Jesus, wife, mother, writer, and adoption advocate. She lives in New England where her husband serves as a worship-pastor. Her introverted nature loves to read, sip coffee, and cook nourishing food for those she loves.  Read more on her blog Redemptive Homemaking.

There is Wonderful Joy Ahead {TC 2015}

“You need connection; you need each other. You need rest so you can press on in what you have been together called to do.

Together Called isn’t another conference. It is an opportunity to come together, a place for husbands and wives to be step out of the chaos called everyday life and be encouraged, a place for us to learn and fellowship together as a couple and as a community.”


So reads a quote from our Upcoming Events page describing Together Called 2015.  In just two short days over 100 couples will be gathering at Bear Creek Mountain Resort to do just that, connect, rest, learn, be encouraged, and enjoy fellowship with our spouses and with each other.

When asked to share why they are coming, couples shared many of these same reasons:

     to connect

“Just thankful for the moments together without kids and for connecting with our most beloved family and friends!”

“Taking time for us to build and strengthen our relationship.”

“Looking forward to “getting off the hamster wheel” and having time to talk in complete sentences.”

{We would love} “a connection with even one other couple that we could carry forward and continue after the conference.”

“Looking very forward to connecting as a couple as well as forming connections with other couples!”

     to rest

“We are looking to rest and regroup.”

“Sanity! We are burned out and exhausted.”

     to learn

“We need some strategies that we can keep each other accountable with.”

“We’re looking forward to meeting those who have been down these same paths as we look for guidance and wisdom moving forward.”

“We know we are making mistakes and doing things that are clearly NOT working. However, we can’t seem to fully right the ship. We need this weekend to sleep, recharge, reconnect, and brain storm!”

     to be encouraged

“Prayer from and with those that “get it”.”

“We’re coming in at a very heavy hard time in our marriage. I so appreciate the prayer.”

     to fellowship

“Friendship.”

“Time to see old friends and make new ones.”


 

We couldn’t be more excited to see what God is going to do in and through this weekend!  And we covet your continued prayers over this weekend that in all and above all His Name would be honored and glorified.

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On the Inside

“God is knitting our hearts together – but it turns out stitches hurt, and
what goes on inside a ‘cocoon’ is messy.” My mother e-mailed that to a
friend when she asked how things were going.

We’ve glimpsed a sweetness in my sister that is wonderful, but we’re
grieving hard – and this grief is coming out like anger. I was recently
asked to share my post “Broken”, and I feel guilty about it because I
don’t feel that way now.

But I’m realizing that I still love her – a brutal kind of love that holds
on when everything turns ugly.  A love that sometimes almost feels like
hate.  And Mama told me the fact that I get this worked up about her
behavior is good – because IT IS WRONG so it shows I know what’s right.

But that doesn’t mean I can act on my feelings. And what makes things worse
is that no one else does either.  I just sit there and watch this grief
come out and wish someone would do something!  But my part is going to
be hard, because I’m *inside* the cocoon. And all these people are asking,
“How’s it going?” while they’re waiting for it to pop open…. And I want
to say “awful” but I smile and say “good” because, considering, it is – and
people don’t understand what Lucy’s been through so it isn’t fair to tell
them.

So you smile, and say “good” and tell them about the “ups.”

Someday we’re gonna’ pull outa’ this and look back and exhale. And the
brutal ugly love will give way to something beautiful and graceful without
the brokenness and ugliness.

Someday this cocoon will pop open. We’ll break out. We’ll be ready.

And someday this little butterfly and I will dance together. In the
sunshine. And we’ll forget about the time we were cooped up together with
that ugly love.

But the words of “Broken” don’t bother me that much anymore. Because I’ve
found my heart is still capable of shattering. It isn’t strong enough yet,
and I hope it never is! Our girl can still tear me apart like cobwebs when
I let her. And I probably stick to her fingers and she doesn’t know what to
do. She probably looks at the girl who says “I love you” when you yell
at her and smiles when she’s yelling on the inside, and doesn’t know what
to do – and I don’t know what to do either, and here.we.are. And we’re both
torn apart and messy, and we’re both broken, confused, and scared.

I thought I knew how to love unconditionally, and then the full force of it
hit me and I couldn’t take it. And I wonder *what in the world’s wrong with
me!* And other people reach their max and flare up, and it doesn’t shake
me; and I find myself mad at my little butterfly when she didn’t do
anything! And I don’t get it – any of it.

Things are calming down now. I’m able to look back and see progress. I’m
able to understand things a bit.

Little brother and I are grounded; little sis and I are still taking root.
We’re taking root fast, but we’re not deep yet – and Satan is trying to
pull us out and throw us away. He wants to pull us off the vine. He doesn’t
want me to love my sister, period.  But he can’t stop me.

I wish I could say I’d-like-to-see-him-try, but I have and it’s ugly. He
will always try. He has been trying – and he almost succeeded in getting us
off. But our girl doesn’t have the Branch to stay grounded in, so if I snap
we both crumble.

I have to stay strong, but I don’t feel that way. Because the world is
broken, and our girl is broken, and she’s breaking me.

Our friend wrote my Mom back:

“Stitches hurt – but they *heal*.”
Our butterfly’s wings are growing, and I’m struck breathless by their
beauty.​

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Hanna Rothfuss
Hanna Rothfuss

My name is Hanna Rothfuss.  I am 14 and in eighth grade.  I have lived in the suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska for my whole life.  My interests are reading and writing, mainly about fantasy and orphan care–often adoption.  I have four siblings, two of which are adopted.  I’m a homeschooler and a child of God.  I pray that all my writing is encouraging, empowering, and brings glory to Him.

You can read more of Hanna’s writing on her blog: Taking My Time.

Telephone

So, Lucy and I have a little game we have been playing where we pretend to call someone on the telephone.  Usually I am supposed to place the call… ring, ring, ring… and say hello to the recipient on the other end of the line.  Then I pass the phone to her and she says hello and passes it back and then proceeds to tell me what else I should tell them.  I think I am learning all kinds of interesting things by being part of these phone calls that I may not otherwise be privy to!  Recently, we started out calling Hanna, Spencer, Becca, Baba… then we moved on to calling people in China.  We called Baoji Mama and Baba (her foster parents in Baoji) and some other familiar names of her friends.  Then things started to get interesting and she started asking me to call other friends from China with names I was not yet familiar with… some of them were younger children, some older, some had been adopted.  It is amazing to me how well we can communicate in our combination of Chinese and English after only 3 months and how quickly more and more of the balance of our communication continues to lean toward English.  Sometimes we talk around ideas or use a translator app on my phone like Google Translate or Pleco to help us get over a hurdle.  On this particular day, as we continued to make calls, I used the English word “adopted” and she stopped and asked what I meant.  ”Remember that Baba Mama came to China to find Lucy?  Remember that we signed papers together?  Remember the blue thumbprints and your hand print that we put on the papers?”

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Nods and agreement from Lucy to all of this.  ”Lucy, do you understand?  Now I am your mama.  No more new mamas.”  Yes, she nodded and asked to tell me something in Chinese using the translator app.  I found it on my phone and we both patiently waited for the little ding that indicates she should start talking.  Then I held the phone and waited for the English word to appear…

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Back in China, in the world that Lucy knew, all the female caregivers were called “mama” and all the male caregivers “baba.”  These caregivers have come and gone in Lucy’s life and have not been “forever and always.”  When I caught my breath, I couldn’t help but be amazed and be so blessed.  As I type tonight, I am thinking of how easy it is for things to be lost in translation even among speakers of a common language and
of the other game called “telephone” that demonstrates this so well!
I am so grateful that this truth is taking hold in Lucy.
May she truly feel it in the depth of her heart.
She has a family forever and always.

______________________________

KirstinRothfussKirstin Rothfuss is Mama to 5 wonderful children and wife to Jason. Two of their children came to their family through the blessing of adoption. Their family mission statement is …“to glorify God by working together to help people of all ages all around us reach their full potential through adventure, hospitality, education, and service.”
You can read the story of the Rothfuss family’s most recent adoption at http://www.rothfuss.us/.

Waiting is Hard, Y’all!

As a child, I remember the excruciating wait from Christmas Eve to Christmas morning. I would lie awake for what seems like hours wondering how I was ever going to fall asleep and what the morning might hold.

Now as I lie awake at night, gone are the visions of sugar plums dancing in my head. Instead, my heart is on the other side of the world, as I think about my sweet girl who is waiting too. Waiting for a family she can call her own and who will love her forever. 

Waiting for an adoption is hard, y’all. When I was young, I thought that one night of waiting for Christmas morning was tough. I had no idea what was to come.

First, we waited for years and years for a biological child who never came, because God had a different plan. Then we waited for our first adoption, our second and now our third. 

Waiting may be hard, but so worth it because God’s plan is so much greater and more wonderful than ours. And even though the wait is hard, once it is over, and we see God’s plan fully accomplished, we know why He made us wait on His timing.

This is a truth I cling to right now when I lie awake at night wishing my child were in my arms. I know that His plan and timing is perfect. I’ve seen it realized twice before, but that hasn’t made the wait any easier. However, because I trust Him based on past experiences of seeing Him work, I know that I will look back on this time and again see His hand behind the scenes in our life and her life, preparing us for the exact moment that He has ordained that we should become a family. 

How often has God had to wait for us to respond, believe Him, love Him, or follow Him?

How patient He is with us! 

He longs for us, searches for us, and seeks us just as I long for, searched for and sought my sweet little one. So I will trust in the Lord who is my God, Father, Savior and friend, remembering that He loves her even more that I do.

_________________________________________

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Suzanne Meledeo

After struggling with infertility for 5 years, God led Suzanne and her husband Adam to His Plan A for their lives—adoption! Their daughter, Grace Lihua, came into their lives in 2011 from the Fujian Province, China. Their son, Anthony Jianyou, joined their family in January of 2013 from Shanghai, and their little girl, Eva Hanting, will be joining their family very soon from the Hunan Province. After a career in politics, Suzanne is thankful for God’s provision in their lives that now allows her to work part time as a Pilates instructor while home schooling their children and working as a part of the WAGI leadership team. You can follow their adoption journey and life on their blog, Surpassing Greatness.

The Day I Fell Apart

The Day I Fell Apart

Something triggered her fear, and she snapped. I will never call them “fits” because that would imply she could control them. And she cannot.

We’ve learned how to handle her meltdowns over the last year. We restrain her safely, usually while rocking her back and forth and telling her in a quiet voice about how much we love her, no matter what.

This time, I let go at the wrong time, and her knee hit me square in the chin. I saw stars then told her I’d have to come back in a minute. I went to the bathroom and exploded into sobs. It was as if I’d put my carbonated emotions in a bottle and shaken them for months. Physical pain was the only thing that could release the pressure.

I cried on and off for days. I cried about issues I’d been thinking about for months, and I cried about things so ridiculous that I would laugh while wiping my tears. That’s a sure way to let your family know you’ve completely lost it.

It turns out when you wait a long time to let yourself have a breakdown, it takes a while to recover.

On day three of my incessant crying, Matt left to speak at a church in Kansas for four nights. He felt bad for leaving, and I was dreading single parenting in the midst of the rollercoaster. I prayed that my kids would show me mercy for the week. Bedtimes are very difficult right now for a couple of our kids, and they’re even worse when Matt’s gone. The most challenging part of the day comes when I have the least energy and patience left. So I prayed for my own strength as well.

The days went by, and my kids were amazingly well-behaved. I eventually cried all the tears I’d been storing up. Matt came back home, and things eased back into normal.

When I went to a meeting with my counseling supervisor the next week, I described the whole thing to him. He said, “So you’re saying that when you allowed yourself to fall apart, the whole world didn’t fall apart? You mean when you gave your family the chance, they actually rose to the occasion?” I told him to shut up.

But he was right (I have a love/hate relationship with his rightness). When I see my husband struggle, I feel like I have to stay strong. When my kids are dealing with hard things, I put my own challenges aside. And the pressure builds.

When I let myself be weak and fall apart, balance reigns. They rise to the challenge. I get to have bad days and feel sad. I get to cry for lots of reasons or no reason at all. Being the mom doesn’t make my emotions or difficulties mean less. In fact, I dare say that it’s good for our kids to see me feel all kinds of things and deal with those feelings in healthy ways. (Or, less fun to talk about, to deal with my feelings in unhealthy ways and then apologize to them).

Are you putting your own needs on the back-burner while you help everyone else cope with theirs? I’ve learned that my emotions will eventually make themselves undeniable, and not always at the most convenient time.

Emotional health is a discipline. The circumstances in which I most need to practice good self-care are the same situations in which it’s most difficult to do so. Therefore, I must be disciplined in taking care of myself, even when it feels unnatural. Even when it’s inconvenient.

Have you been storing your emotions away while you tend to everyone around you? It might be time to open up that bottle before it explodes.

 **Disclaimer: The “meltdowns” are very rare now, and we have not always handled them well. If you’re in the middle of that struggle with your hurting child, you’re not alone. And if you’re not handling it with rocking and a quiet voice of grace, you’re not a horrible parent. It takes time and professional help to learn the best ways to help our kids from hard places. If we can help you find help, please let us know. 

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Matt and Becca write about marriage, parenting, and life through the lens of a married couple, parenting team, and pastor and professional counselor. They share hope and restoration by giving a glimpse into their lives- the failures, the successes, and the brokenness and beauty of everyday. You can read more of their writing at WhitsonLife.

 

A call for letters

“A letter is a blessing, a great and all-too-rare privilege that can turn a private moment into an exalted experience.” – Alexandra Stoddard

letters buttonAn exalted experience. We all desire that–experiences that take us to place we simply do not go everyday, a place that excites us, challenges us, makes us see the the next day or even the next moments in a new way. Letters can do that through both the creating of them and the taking them in. When we sit in quiet with the specific intention of pouring our heart out in words to someone, we make space to process a relationship in our lives at least in part. But, it doesn’t stop there. We share that process, and in that sharing the exalted experience happens.

That’s what we want for you. So we are calling out for letters for this blog over the month of April–a letter to your child, a letter to your spouse, a letter to your mother, a letter to your child’s first mother or father, a letter to your child’s teacher, a letter to your best friend, a letter to a foster parent or orphanage nanny. We aren’t looking for a particular letter or bent. The person to whom it is addressed may have already read your words, may read them soon, or may never read them. Your letter could overflow with love or gently direct. Maybe your process in writing them is all that is needed to create the exalted experience. We just want to urge you to grab hold of one of those all-too-rare privileges when we see our hearts turned inside out and we experience something new together as a community.

Write a letter to share, then share it with us via email by clicking here so that we can consider posting it and sharing it with others with your name attached or anonymously if you prefer. Stephanie, the administrator of this blog, will read every word sent to us and, after experiencing the words herself, will reply to you if we decide to share it here. If you want to be held accountable to the challenge but don’t want your heart shared so widely on this blog, still email her and allow her the privilege of being blessed by your words and blessing you with a private response.

 

Hard Hope

He was laying in his bed, head shoved into the hard wood between the rails of his crib and the thin mattress, desperately sucking his thumb and whimpering. I picked him up, kissed his little head — burning up. The nanny turned to me, “He’s not feeling well,” she said. I nodded, and held him close. He nuzzled closer and looked up at me.

Only an orphan for a little more than a week and already he has to learn about being alone the hard way. Feverish and uncomfortable and mama’s got two arms and eleven babies.

my arms are yours for now, little one

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We pray for families to come quickly for these little ones, but when it has only been days since he last knew the touch of his mother’s hand, or the voice of his daddy… it’s hard. It’s hard to hope for a future that shouldn’t be. It’s hard to get excited about adoption, when a little one has so recently been abandoned.

Do you get me? Do you understand? I’m all for adoption, I think that it’s beautiful  – God works through His body to restore and redeem and paint for us, His children, a picture of His great love. But it’s still hard… there is pain and scars and brokenness, and the brokenness is so much more evident in the beginning few pages of a child’s story. What will happen next? I don’t know. But what I do know is that today a little one is grieving the loss of his parents. He’s grieving the fact that he is not their Precious One anymore.

come, Lord Jesus, come

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Hannah Samuels

When Hannah traveled to China in 2002 with her parents to adopt her sister Elisabeth, she fell in love with the country and people. In 2004, when her other sister Naomi was adopted, she started dreaming of going back. It took 5 years for that dream to come true. She now serves in a foster home for special needs orphans in China. Hannah spends her days studying, writing for the foster home and on her personal blog, Loving Dangerously, and most importantly, holding babies. Hannah loves the adventure of living overseas with her family. It’s not always easy, but it’s always worth it.

In Honor of Avery Madison

Avery Foot Obituary

On Saturday, February 28, 2015, 11 month old Avery Madison Foot of Fulton, Maryland passed away unexpectedly of SIDS. Avery is the beloved daughter of Shaena and Jeff, sister of Caitlyn Foot, and granddaughter of Roxy and Dave Kreuger. She is also survived by many aunts, uncles and cousins.

Pray for this family, that they would tangibly feel the presence of God and that they would cling to Him as He starts to put their broken hearts back together in a new way.

At the request of Avery’s parents, donations can be made by clicking on the donate button below in lieu of flowers. The Sparrow Fund will be working closely with the family so that whatever funds come in are used to support adoption and honor their precious daughter who joined their family via adoption.

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To donate by check, please make payable to The Sparrow Fund and mail it to:

The Sparrow Fund
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Is Love Enough?

 I hear the Lord saying, ‘I will stay close to you, as I instruct and guide you along the pathway of your life. I WILL COUNSEL YOU along the way, and lead you forth with My eyes as your guide. So don’t make it difficult, don’t be stubborn when I take you where you’ve not been before. Don’t make Me have to tug you and pull you along. JUST COME WITH ME!’ (Psalm 32:8-9, The Passion Translation)

Do you hear echoes of your own parental voice in these words? I know I do! Look how our Father starts with connection–oh how I love that about Him!

When my eyes are on Him, I see the way forward, because I see it in His eyes.

So often we parents don’t know what to do to help our child, to parent well and wisely. The options either seem too many, or they seem to have disappeared altogether! We busy ourselves scanning all the possibilities, but sometimes we forget to simply look at Jesus to see what direction He is going.We are so quick to run to counselors when we recognize the effects of trauma and all that surrounds our adoptions and fostering. Stephen and I are so very thankful for the therapists that have helped us and our children. We have received significant help and guidance, and God has used these counselors to help our children. But as my dear friend Susan Hillis says, there is a difference between a counselor with a small ‘c’ and THE COUNSELOR! The One who promises, “I will counsel you along the way…”

His love for you and your child goes beyond–deeper and higher than your child’s need.
Deeper and higher than the limits of your parenting abilities.

I have found Him to be so practical in His guidance as Stephen and I make tough parenting decisions. Certainly adoption is constantly taking me “places I have not been before”–I often find myself on unfamiliar ground as a parent.
I suspect you know exactly what I mean!

So today, I just want to encourage you my fellow parents that you do hear God’s voice– you are created for it! God would not promise His counsel if we were incapable of receiving.

For all the counselors in the world, and all the best parenting practices you can put in place, will not heal your child. We co-labor with God for our child’s healing, but in the end, each one will walk in wholeness not by our own effort, but by His!

I used to think that the love of our family would be “enough” to carry our children into healing and freedom.

Is love enough? If we are talking about my love, then I will have to say NO.

But, if we are talking about God’s love for my child, and for me, then a resounding YES is my response to that question. YES YES YES! Greater than hope, Greater than faith– LOVE IS GREATER than any loss your child has faced.Even if a king has the best equipped army, it would never be enough to save him. Even if the best warrior went to battle, he could not be saved simply by his strength alone. Human strength and the weapons of man are such false hopes for victory. They may seem mighty, but they will always disappoint…. The Lord alone is our radiant hope and we trust in Him with all our hearts. His wrap-around presence will strengthen us. (Psalm 33:16-17, 20)

So, wherever you are in this parenting journey, remember you have a Wonderful Counselor, free of charge and available for home visits 24/7. And remember that you always have hope, a radiant hope, that comfortably surpasses your own parenting abilities and far outstrips your child’s needs.

                                        ___________________________________________
Beth Templeton
Beth Templeton

Beth has been married to her husband Stephen for 27 years. They have seven children, ages 18-24. Several years after giving birth to three girls God called their family to the adventure and blessing of adoption. In 2000, they brought home a brother and sister, ages 5 and 10, from Russia. Then they returned to the same orphanage 18 months later and brought home two more brothers, ages 7 and 10. Beth’s heart has been deeply and forever changed as she has watched the love of Father God poured out on her whole family through adoption. She leads Hope at Home, a ministry dedicated to help adoptive and foster parents encounter the Father’s heart for their families, partnering with God to transform orphans into sons and daughters. For more parenting insight and encouragement in the Lord, go to Hope at Home.

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