This weekend we participated in our Foster Pride training. This is the training program for families that are interested in getting licensed for foster care or adoption. We had a terrific group of families in our sessions...I think there were 40 to 50 people in attendance, so it was a pretty big group. The agency had to change the location of the meeting in order to accomodate all the interested parties....this was extremely encouraging for me to see that so many people were interested in taking this challenge to love, care for, and nurture children. So many of the couples/individuals in our group also indicated their faith as significantly important to their lives and to their decision to become foster or adoptive parents.
Here are a few things God has brought together in my mind over the weekend. I have been reading Francine Rivers' book, Sons of Encouragement, and I think it is taking me over a year to finish it although I have loved it. God has led me to read other books or parts of books through that time period as well. As God would have it, I just picked the book back up and read the section of the book describing the life of Amos...leading into Hosea's ministry and, even though I love Francine Rivers as an author, I hated this story (Francine, if you are reading this, it is totally not your fault). Do you ever hug a book? Well, I know it sounds weird, but I sometimes hug my books when they give me a lesson of truth or some kind of wisdom. I have often hugged the Bible and I remember hugging John Piper's book, Don't Waste Your Life, recently when God clearly spoke to my heart about adopting. Anyway, I did not hug the Sons of Encouragement book after this story...I threw it to the ground and asked God why he would ask this man to do something so difficult. Life was too hard for Amos, there was very little redemption, the people God placed on Amos' heart rejected him, scorned him and wished him dead because of the truth he spoke...and in the end....well, I guess I won't give that away in case you want to read it :-) The encouragement in that story just didn't speak to me the way I had wished it would at the time.
So, that was all fresh in my mind when I started taking the Foster Pride training on Friday. That day was somewhat uncomfortable and discouraging (though, I am sure realistic) as the presenters discussed all kinds of behavioral issues, emotional problems, physical challenges...etc that can or will come into your home when you foster/adopt. There is a compassionate part of me that wants to be open to anything, but there is a protective part of me that likes the status quo family Brad and I have worked to achieve so far. So the presenters asked us to consider which behaviors we would be willing to accept...(really hard stuff)...and I struggled in thinking of saying yes to some of them...but, then I struggled with saying absolutely no to them too. The session was very insightful and resourceful, but I realized Brad and I would need to spend some time in prayer to consider these issues.
Saturday morning I woke up to God clearly telling me, "remember, you are adopted"...it was as soon as my eyes opened and it was a pretty strong statement to my heart. I started crying right away as He told me that truth and showed me why I had just read about all the struggles Amos went through in order to speak truth to God's wayward children. He reminded me of the fact that I have been and still am sometimes, wayward, rebellious, disobedient, unwilling to listen out of my own stubborness...and basically, that He would not have marked a no by any of my behaviors in order to give me a second chance. OUCH! That is humbling...I am still reeling from the effects of that truth hitting me.
So, with a new perspective- that of my own "adoption", I went on Saturday to the second part of our training and feel like I am better prepared for whatever behaviors we will encounter with the children God brings into our lives.
It is always amusing (like an inside joke between me and God) and so meaningful to me the times that God will turn the lesson to an application in our lives and, since I am married to a pastor, my life lessons often become illustrations for our church family. After the last two days of adoption training, we found out on Sunday morning that our pastor was ill and would not be able to preach. God would have to put something together for Brad to share and so we went with the topic of being adopted by God. In the process of putting our thoughts together into a message we were looking at similarities between how the adoption process is similar to how the Bible describes our adoption as God's children . We found an article giving eight similarites that were very touching and we felt would help us clearly communicate the message that was on our hearts from the weekend. As we were printing it and reading through it we realized this Sunday was Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, coincidence? NO WAY...after we printed the article we saw it had been written by John Piper..CRAZY! He was actually the author I mentioned earlier whose book Brad and I were reading when we felt like God was leading us to start the adoption process now. Not to mention that every verse that had been chosen and song that we were planning on singing was perfect for this message...God was showing off even as we were scurrying around to get something together. After Brad spoke he opened it up for a time of sharing and there were so many incredible testimonies shared of how people's lives have been touched and transformed by adoption. God is in control.
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