Category: Different Moments

Posted in Adoption Journey, Different Moments, Different Thoughts

and so…

Posted on by Wick

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an official “update”.  We have so many friends and family who have given, and are joining us in prayer – I felt like I wanted to post “something”.  So here it is:  we are still waiting.

It hasn’t always been easy, and there are still moments where it’s not.  But we’ve been reminded through it all – sometimes it’s okay to wait.  Just like the blog I posted earlier this week, sometimes it’s good for us to remember that in the midst of ugly suffering – there is something beautiful and precious happening.  We can hope and pray that something along those lines is happening here.

8668379016_09631c718a_hWhether it’s the fact that our daughter is having a few more days with her birth family; or simply that God knows I haven’t quite released my desire to “do it on my own strength” yet….or possibly even just because it just hasn’t happened yet.  We continue to receive a peace about where we are at this point.  Waiting.  Trusting.  Breathing slowly.  Knowing that God’s activity is not contained only in the act of bringing home our daughter….these moments are formative, prayer-inducing, and Spirit-relying.  After all, “patience” is just one bit of the Fruit of the Spirit….right?

Pratically – we’re at the top of the list still.  We’ve had more than one occasion where we received the offer of a referral that almost met the requirements we’ve been approved for.  In each case, there has been a difficult moment of prayer, and incredible experiences of desperation before a God who we want to love – and who Loves these children.  It’s not easy to release a child/children who really needs a family, but we know there are several incredible families on the list after ours – many who are better set-up or shaped to receive these.

So for now, we continue to pray.  We check our e-mail about once an hour (at least).  We pray some more.  We try to figure out how to raise a few more bucks (only about $10,000 left to go, if you wanna give just click here!).  We talk about what God is doing, and look forward to how our family will grow….in so many ways.

And not forget that we have 3 daughters at home who are being transformed by being a part of our family as well.  Their little hearts are bursting with Love, even in the moments it may not be 100% transparent.  They get so excited to realize that by living from love – they are changing the world.  The WORLD.  They pray for Phoebe, and can’t wait to meet her.

Someday soon, we will move forward.  Until then..we continue to grow and be changed….

Posted in Different Moments, Different Scriptures

not optimistic. :)

Posted on by Wick

Tragedy.  Suffering.  Pain.  Humanity taking the lives of others in their hand, and purposefully causing injury and death.  So many events just from the past week or so seem to be screaming out, “Where is Jesus as Lord?”  This is the world my daughters are growing up into.  The world in which my ability to keep them safe is drastically reduced every day they grow.

I’m a huge Detroit Redwings fan, and my entire hockey-watching life I’ve watched them head into the playoffs during this next week or so.  But this season has been a rough one.  Recently their head coach, Mike Babcock was interviewed.  They asked him if he was optimistic about his teams’ chance to make it into the playoffs.  His response: “I don’t know if it’s optimistic; I think it’s realistic,”

I wish I shared his realism.  But I’ll definitely be optimistic, even as I begin growing my playoff beard. (Just in case we need it early.)

But his vantage point reminds me of God’s view, as he looks out over our world that is so filled with uncertainty and suffering.  In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus tells a parable that offers us insight into the situation our world is in today:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.” 13:24-29

For an explanation of the parable, skip to verse 36.  But it seems that even when God looks out on our world that has so many spillwayweeds growing, He sees more than these.  He sees the beauty of what is growing through the children of the Kingdom.  Growth that, between telling the parable and explaining it, Jesus connects to a small amount of yeast working its way through the entire dough.  Or a small mustard seed growing into a large, strong tree that provides shelter.

It’s important for us to remember as we look out on our world this week.  As we look for ways to honestly look into our childrens’ eyes and say “Yes, even in the midst of all of these weeds growing, Jesus is Lord.”  Help your children to identify the places where Kingdom is growing.  Find ways for the Kingdom to arrive in and through your family.  Wonder what that can look like, practically?  Check out the Fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23.  Spend a day focusing on each one with your children, and as you participate in Kingdom growing – know that as Jesus delays coming to complete what He began by becoming Lord – it’s not because He’s optimistic – He’s realistic.  There is so much in our world that’s worth giving the chance to continue growing…

Posted in Adoption Journey, Different Moments

Advent: Peace

Posted on by Wick

You know that feeling you get in the midst of a conversation, when someone is talking and it triggers something amazing you really want to contribute to what’s being said?  But one person to the next, the conversation moves forward, and you’re struggling to find a place to insert your audible “foot in the door”.  Finally, as you sense your window of opportunity passing, you take a deep breath, allow yourself to “let go” of the need to say something, and experience a moment of peace.

That’s nothing.

This peace we talk about during Advent, is the peace of the world.  Peace for a creation that is waiting and groaning for what God has in store.  We’ve experienced this peace in our own lives as well.

Peace that came to me as a teenage boy, working late one night at a campground.  Surrounded by the animals I was caring for, smelling the straw and the dung.  I was feeling the frustrations of life, all the angst of being a teenage boy full of unknowns, multiplied by a difficult family background that made me wonder what would become of life.  I was reminded of a baby boy who was God, born into a similar scene, and the promise that boy gave to always be with me.

Peace that came to my wife and I, in the midst of our 3rd child waiting in the womb.  The doctors had found something that caused alarm in a recent ultrasound.  They explained calmly how this could really be nothing at all.  Or it could be something terrible.  We spent time and tears in prayer, offering our worries to God, and asking that He would give us peace.  Ruby continues to be a reminder of God’s ability to bring peace in the unknown moments.

peacePeace that we rely on even now, waiting for concrete news on bringing home our daughter from Africa.  There are horrible living conditions in the DRC, in the midst of peace talks between their soldiers and rebels in the East.  We’re trying to raise funds in the midst of a season where most people we know have already stretched their budgets tight to provide Christmas for their families.  There are others “ahead of us” in waiting for a referral (where we would be matched with our daughter).  But one step at a time, requirements are being met that will lead to us rescuing our daughter.  We are being reminded of the peace He offers even now.

It’s not a peace that declares “Everything will go well from now on.”  After all, it wasn’t long after the arrival of Jesus that Herod ordered the horrible slaughter of babies across the land.  In this we are reminded that peace is so much more than “things going well”, or a quiet starry scene with someone singing “Silent Night” in the background.

Peace, is the presence of God in our midst.  Immanuel.  In our joy.  In our worries.  In our suffering.  We have a peace that passes understanding.  We will have it still tomorrow.  Breathe deep…and be thankful…