Classes

We start our classes March 1. And for 10 weeks, every Thursday night, we will sit in a room with other couples and learn about the world these kids come from. Drug abuse, sexual abuse....vial acts that cause grown men to shutter and women to weep. The thought of having to administer a new born meth shots because they are born addicted....the story of the young children sold to men so their Mom can get her 'fix'.

I am both beyond excited and slightly terrified. My tender heart knows the ringer it's about to be fed through. I pray we remember the promises of God. I pray we remember He's ordained this. He will bless it. We will get the child/children we are appointed to have. He will be glorified in this.

I pray that the Lord protects our hearts and we always remember, if not for the grace of God, we could be the one's needing help.

A simple text message

It was a quarter to 12 when we entered the Department of Human Resources for our county. The area was bustling with people having supervised visits, setting up paperwork for various county aid, and dealing with child support issues. Unsure what to do, I approached the counter.

Lady behind glass: May I help you?

Me: Yes, We are here for the orientation for adoptive/foster parents

Lady behind glass: Ok, sign in at the security officers desk and take a seat in the waiting room.

Me: Thanks

Stephen and I walked over the security officer, signed in, and promptly took a seat in the waiting room. People shuffled around doing whatever they were doing. The room was old and tired. It smelled like pee. And it's clientelle reminded me of the stark difference in the world Stephen and I live in and the children that would capture our hearts. As Stephen walked around looking at the posters that littered the walls, I struggled with wanting to leave. Suddenly, I didn't know if I could do this. I wanted to run back to my safe world. To what was comfortable and familiar. As the tears formed in my eyes, I texted my friend and confessed to wanting to run like he**. She gently told me that was normal. Stephen walked over and patted my knee. Sensing my uneasiness, he asked me what was going on. As I finished telling him how I felt, he softly chuckled and said he understood. 3 minutes later, the love of my life, texted me with tears in his eyes and said this would be the place Jesus would be. My heart settled.

Shortly after, a nice lady came up and we went back to the room where we began our journey.

SANDS

Picking an address for a blog can be tough so Susanna decided to setup two blogs and let me select the one I liked. I cannot remember the other name but this one sandsadopt originated from our initials so it could mean susannaandstephenadopt or stephenandsusannaadpot. With it being sandsadpot neither one of us can get top billing, so a person reading this blog can make up their own mind on who gets the top billing. If you know us, you know that it does not matter whose name is first. But after I picked the sandsadopt, I wondered if people would try to figure the meaning of sandsadopt. Well, I just answered that question above but yesterday I had a thought of looking up sand/sands in the bible.

Psalm 139
17-18

Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful! God, I'll never comprehend them!
I couldn't even begin to count them—any more than I could count the sand of the sea.

Those verses are great; however, looking at the ones before 17 and 18 are really amazing.

13-16
Oh yes, You shaped me first inside, then out; You formed me in my mother's womb.
I thank You, High God—You're breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation! You know me inside and out, You know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something. Like an open book, You watched me grow from conception to birth; all the stages of my life were spread out before You, the days of my life all prepared before I'd even lived one day.

The Message (MSG)


Stephen