How can you miss someone you haven't met, yet?

"How can you miss someone so much that you haven't even met, yet?"  This is one of my favorite lines from the movie Facing the Giants.
I must admit to getting bogged down lately in the planning, and the fundraising, and the "what--if-ing" that is all a part of the adoption process.  I am overwhelmed at the amount of money we need to raise.  But do you know who isn't overwhelmed by it?  My Heavenly Father--you know the one who adopted me into HIS family--that Father...that Daddy who cares about orphans more than I do...which is a lot.  He reminded me tonight that it is time to be still and trust Him.  And when I did that, I literally felt an ache for our child.  I can't wait to hold him or her and kiss those sweet baby cheeks.  I can't wait to tell our child how much we have loved, begged God for, and prayed for him or her to grow up to love and serve our Jesus.  So how can you miss someone you haven't met yet?  I'll let my Heavenly Father explain it, because I can't...

Father to the fatherless, defender of widows—
    this is God, whose dwelling is holy.
⁶ God places the lonely in families;
    he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.
But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Psalm 68:5-6

National Adoption Awareness Month

November is national adoption awareness month. Many people do not understand that Brian and I WANT to adopt. I recently went to the doctor for a physical for our adoption homestudy. She asked me if I had exhausted every effort to have children biologically. I tried to explain that I had not, but saw the need for adoption rather than in vitro. We could spend money and hope for a child. Or we can give a home to a child who is right now without a home. For us it is the very picture of what God, our Father does for us by welcoming us into His family. I did not do a very good job of explaining this to her. However, a friend referred me to an article on the KLOVE website. Russell Moore can articulate it better than I can.
"Adoption is not just about couples who want children -- or who want more children. Adoption is about an entire culture within our churches, a culture that sees adoption as part of our Great Commission mandate and as a sign of the gospel itself...I want to ask what it would mean if our churches and families were known as the people who adopt babies -- and toddlers, and children, and teenagers. What if we as Christians were known, once again, as the people who take in orphans and make of them beloved sons and daughters?...Not everyone is called to adopt. No one wants parents who adopt children out of the same sense of duty with which they may give to the building fund for the new church gymnasium. But all of us have a stake in the adoption issue, because Jesus does. He is the one who tells us His Father is also "Father of the fatherless" (Psalm 68:5). And, He is the one who insists on calling "the least of these" His "brothers" (Matthew 25:40) and who tells us that the first time we hear His voice, He will be asking us if we did the same." Russell D. Moore

I shared some of this quote on facebook and a friend of mine had this to say, "EVERYONE can have a part in adoption, even if they are not bringing a child into their own home. If only the church would be as strong of an advocate for adoption as it is against abortion - what good could be done in the name of Christ!" Matt Kinnell, adoptive father of adorable twins from Ethiopia
I completely agree with Matt. Just some food for thought in observance of National Adoption Awareness Month.
If you are interested in finding out more about what churches and individuals can do to support orphans and adoption, check out the following websites.
www.cryoftheorphan.org
www.hopefororphans.org (a ministry of Family Life)
www.icareaboutorphans.org (a ministry of Focus on the Family)

"Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." James 1:27