How God Works- Part 4

This post is part four of the "How God Works" series, so if you have not read the original post, click here first, then here and here to catch up. :-)

Now, I must stop for a moment to thank those who have stayed with me this week.  No one likes cliffhangers, and I am not being deliberately cruel (I promise).  There is a method to this madness.  

You see, as I thought about how to share this "God story", I realized that what was most important was to show God's hand at work.  I simply did not think that a quick "Guess what?" sort of post was sufficient to show how intricately God has been weaving His plans together for His children over these past few months.  I felt that without a significant portion of the "back-story", the awe and wonder of all of this would be lost.  It has truly left me breathless and even more amazing--speechless-- on more than one occasion this year and that does not happen often ya'll!  So, I beg forgiveness from those of you who, like me, were wide awake at ridiculous hours this week pondering this series of events.

OK, disclaimer over. Now, on with the show!

While I was in China in December with the boys, I still felt a nagging from the Lord that we were only getting started. Now, not to say that my heart is at all closed to future adoptions (it is not!), but I am not talking about more kids here.

In fact, at that point, I wasn't at all sure what I was talking about, but it was there, under the surface.  Each night in our hotel room, I would put the boys to bed at 9 and had some alone time to skype with friends (my lifelines!!!), read, and pray.

It was during one of those skype sessions in particular that I chatted with a dear friend about this "nagging".  She confirmed that she, too, had felt the Lord moving in a big way in our community and wondered if the events of this year were not intended to move my heart toward some sort of mission work related to orphan care.

After all, this very same friend was the one who started all this in the first place one warm April day at an Easter egg hunt.  She was there for the very first conversation we ever had about adoption. She heard my flimsy excuses and my rationalizations for why "WE" could never adopt. (And I had some GOOD ONES.)

She saw something that I was not able to see at that point, and she had seen the transformation of my family and my heart for the orphans appear right before her eyes in the months that followed.

The next day, I shared this off-the-wall thought with another friend.  Surprisingly, she not only agreed with my first friend, but she said to me, "Have you spoken to Tom about this yet?"  When I said no, she proceeds to tell me that in checking in on my other two "boys" during my absence that she had had an almost identical conversation with my husband where he told her that he thought the Lord was leading me to a ministry for orphan care. HUH?  

The weeks in China went relatively fast and on Christmas Eve, we finally arrived home with our newest son!

We were so happy to be home for Christmas and to see Tom and Tommy again.

 We enjoyed a nice (yet terribly jet-lagged) Christmas visit with my sister

and the rest of the clan.

"My Three Sons"

My beautiful niece, Lindsey

My sister's twin boys, Ryan & Jacob

My beautiful Sis-in-law, Teresa, and super handsome nephew Easton.

My Father opening gifts

Tom gets another kitchen gadget! His favorite.

You get the idea.  Two days of visiting and we were finally off for home.

Now after sharing a house over the holidays in a VERY jet-lagged state of mind with 17 family members, I was needless to say, grateful to finally be home. 

My bed. My pillow. My coffee!!! 

I know, get to the point. Ok. The point is this:  I wanted to rest. 

I wanted to get my sea legs back before doing anything that required effort. I wanted to make sure that Cameron felt safe and that his needs were being met.

But, God kept nudging.

A few days after we returned home, once we were a little settled, (ok, not settled, but the laundry was done) we invited some friends over to meet Cameron and visit.  

It was during that larger group meeting of other adoptive families that I laid out my heart and shared that I felt the Lord asking me to move into an adoption-related ministry position of some sort.

I sought their counsel and began to see the Lord speaking through them.  

So, just over a week after returning home with all three boys, (wow- still boggles my mind that we have three boys) 

I know what the Lord wants me to do.

Stay tuned...tomorrow will be the last post in this series and will reveal the plan that God has set before me. 

Angie