Worshiping in Walmart

Last week I wrote about how excited we are to be accepted into AGCI and given the green light after four months of waiting to even begin the adoption process.  I asked for prayer, though, about our home study because the agency closest to us requires extra training before you can begin, but wasn't going to be offering that training until January.  The thought of waiting once again was misery.  (This process is confusing so let me clarify . . . Our adoption agency, AGCI, is based in Oregon.  Our homestudy has to be done by a social worker in our state.  AGCI has a few cooperating agencies in Louisiana that we can choose from to do our homestudy.  I was just automatically assuming that we would use the agency that is geographically closest to us.)

Well . . . thanks for praying!  God worked it out Ephesians 3 style and did "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine!" 

Meredith, a friend from college that is also adopting through AGCI (read their story here), messaged me about checking with the social worker they used from the Louisiana Baptist Children's Home.  She said they didn't require any extra training and might be able to get us started faster.  I had resigned myself to waiting and was really trying to trust in God's timing.  But at the same time, I know that your social worker is a big part of the intense journey and I just felt unsettled about working with the agency in Baton Rouge.  So I called and left a message for Ashley, the social worker, on Friday and was anticipating a call back today.

What I did not anticipate was the conversation I had while I was at Walmart with the kiddos this morning.  Ashley called and the first thing out of her mouth was, "I've been waiting for you to call me!"  What?!  Seriously God?!

Let me explain . . . Ashley's boyfriend and I went to college together at Tech (I didn't realize the connection).  He had seen on facebook that we were pursuing adoption and had told Ashley about us so she was just waiting to get my call.  She's even read my blog!   Unbelievable!  Just in the few minutes we talked, she had such an excitement about working with us and was so encouraging.  After promising to call her back when I wasn't with both kids and the chaos that is Walmart, Ava and I had a little worship service on aisle 13!  How good is our God?!

Ashley and I talked longer this afternoon and that peace that I had been seeking came flooding in.  She gets it.  She loves Jesus and so she gets the bigger picture and why we feel called to adopt.  She is ready and excited to walk this journey with us.  She is on top of things . . . my kinda girl!  I've already got a to do list and we even already have our home study scheduled for December 5 & 6!

Do you realize that had I just gone with the Baton Rouge agency, all that happened just today would not have happened until February?  Go ahead and do another happy dance.  Come on . . . you know you want to! 

I'm in awe of God.  I am praising the Father to the fatherless.  No matter how much we want to hold our son, no matter how much Ashley loves helping families pursue adoption, no matter how fast we want this process to go so we can have Easton home . . . God wants it more.  God loves the orphan even more.  He wants to set them in a forever family.  He wants to heal their broken hearts and traumatized minds.  He wants to use His church to show concern for "the least of these" that He most definitely is concerned about.  He wants the truth about the price that Jesus paid for OUR adoption to be proclaimed to all nations.  He wants it more.

I'm praising the One who sees and loves and works in ways that are indeed "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine."  Praise Him!