Faith

"Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." James 2:17

God is Awesome. He is just awesome! He loved us so much that He sent His only Son for us. He sacrificed His OWN SON - to take on the sin of the world, to take on my sin - so I can live eternally with my Savior! What a promise! Our faith is what gets us through every day in this broken world. We need to ask ourselves each day, who do I love more, God or myself?

We are trying to live our lives according to God's will and follow His will for our lives and be obedient; trying to be more like Jesus in this broken world. Faith without deeds is dead...so God is calling us to do something - for us, it's orphans. There are so many children who are in need of loving families, food to eat...God is calling us - sometimes it is out of our comfort zone - to be His hands and feet - to care for the least of these. And we are excited and willing to do so!

But I have wondered HOW can loving ONE of these children be enough? There are 143 million orphans in this world...will ONE make a difference? Is ONE child enough? I would adopt and bring home as many as I could - and I think God is sitting there looking down at me, knowing how passionate I am about all this and saying, "just one...precious daughter...right now, just one." I so badly want those children to know the love of Jesus - to know that there is hope in this broken world - that God loves them and He is always with them....some don't know when they will eat - they may get a bowl of rice today but they don't know when their next meal will be. We have plenty - or should I say an over abundance...we are blessed beyond measure with all of the gifts that God has given to us and I just want to give that same hope and abundance to His babies who are waiting to be loved.

I received on Monday, October 5, 2009 the link from Bethany Christian Services to complete the formal application. I am just about ready to submit it, but I can't log on to do so. The application is the second step in the process - the next step for us will be the informational meeting and then we will work on the home study. There is a lot of paperwork with an intercountry adoption - much more than when we adopted the first time.

This journey is much different that the first one - God has a special purpose and we can't wait to find out what He has in store for all of us!

"God's heart for orphans is huge. Throughout Scripture God shows this. He calls Himself the Father to the Fatherless. He says He delights in setting the lonely in families, and He asks us to care for the orphans, the fatherless and those who don't have a family. But also we know God loves orphans simply because we know God loves us. For while we were still worthless, abandoned, hopeless orphans, God showed us His great love by adopting us into His family, and giving us the "Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15) As John Piper says, "Adoption is the visible gospel."