We truly are a family redefined. We are husband, wife, son, daughter, step children, biological and adopted children and most importantly, Children of God.

A friend pointed out that I needed to update my blog header. After our adoption from Ethiopia, I had updated it stating how the adoption of Sara Joy completed our family. Well... the journey continues. After much prayer, we have decided to follow what we feel is God's calling for us...we went to Ghana with the intention of adopting a four year old girl, Isabella Hope. Little did we know that she would be the catalyst to bringing home not only her, but her half brother and sister. We will now be adding not only Isabella Hope to our family, but also Mary Grace (9) and Gilbert (6) who we will transition to the name Nathaniel Timothy. The shock is wearing off and the JOY and EXCITEMENT are overwhelming. Now truly, our family is complete. The great part of journeying with God, is that it's always an adventure. He knows where we are going, and for us it is all a marvelous surprise. Looking forward to sharing our family adventures as we walk daily through life and as we venture off to Ghana to bring home Mary, Nate and Isabella! It's always an adventure redefining our family!



Monday, August 2, 2010

Maybe it's because I don't ask...

If you know me personally at all, you will know that I am a fairly independent person.  I really don't like to ask for help.  I ask when I need to, but I wait until I REALLY need to ask.  It's just something about me.  Sometimes it's good, sometimes it's bad.  In this case, it was bad.

If you remember, I've written a couple of posts recently about coming close to the end of our journey for Sara Joy and Satan attacking our family via our finances.  Satan will not win... but he sure is putting up a good fight!

Yesterday we were taking a trip to my mom's.  We were going to take the Expedition.  We have a second car that we drive most of the time, just to save miles and the expense of gas with the Expedition, but on long trips, we like to take it.  It's just more comfortable and we need to drive it every once in awhile anyway.  So, we got everyone ready and Cameron went to get his DS game charger out of the truck.  He came back in and said he could not open it using the code.  So, I went out.  I couldn't open it either.  Sometimes if you try to open it too many times, it won't let you open it for a period of time.  So, I went and got the keys.  They did not work either.  So, I opened it the old fashioned way... using the key in the keyhole.  That worked fine.  Then, as I thought it was strange that the code / opener weren't working, I tried to start the truck... NOTHING!  Ok, seriously???  We JUST PUT $1400 in it about SIX WEEKS AGO!!!  Tim went out and tried to jump the battery using the other car.  Nope... still wouldn't start.

Well, we needed to get to my mom's so, in a quick change of plans we took the car.  On the way there, Tim and I were talking about the attacks of Satan.  Cameron asked about it and I explained to him how Satan does not want us to go get Sara.  He wants Sara to be there all alone... that will make it easier for him to capture her heart, rather than her hearing the gospel and giving her life to Christ.  I explained to him how Satan puts roadblocks and stumbling blocks in our way, trying to keep us from loving the Lord like we should and following His will for our lives. 

At that point, it hit me.  With all these things happening to us financially, I have done nothing more than complain.  I've struggled to find a way to make the math work where we could afford everything and still have some money left in savings.  I was doing it all on my own.  I immediately stopped and prayed.  I didn't know what was wrong with the truck, but Tim was going to go up to the auto store and buy a new battery to see if that would work.  So, I prayed "God, I have no idea what is wrong with that truck.  Please let it be something that we can manage and fix easily and not drain us financially.  It's in your hands.  Either way, we will find a way to go get Sara with your help!"

So, we got home and Tim took the battery out of the truck and went up to the auto store.  We had just bought that battery a few months back.  Tim looked all over for the receipt, but could not find it.  Well, when he went to the store, he gave them our phone number.  Their computer records showed when we bought the battery.  They hooked the battery up and found that it had a bad cell... and they gave him a new one at no cost.  The old one was still under warranty.

Many may find this just a coincidence.  I don't.  God intervened.  I asked and he listened.  I was so frustrated yesterday, it seemed like everything was falling in around us.  But then I asked God for help, and he took away some of our burden.  Nothing is too big, small, or inconsequential for God to handle for us.  We just need to ask. 

Thank you God for listening to my prayer and providing us some relief.  We would have followed you either way, whether you intervened or not, but it sure makes it a lot easier this way!  Thank you for giving us an answer and thank you for our Sara Joy!  We can not wait to go get her!

Today the floors should be done (FINALLY) and hopefully the air will be fixed as well.  Yes, we had to go the whole weekend without air upstairs.  I didn't ask God about that one... maybe I should have!

In Christ (thankful for His hand in the seemingly minor things in our life)

Charity

1 comment:

Lori said...

Hate all these attacks, but it's obvious to me that Satan hates your response (turning more to God) even more, so I hate them for you, but love him being defeated by your prayer and God!!!!

Thankful for the relatively easy solution!