We are happy to say that after three months of paper chasing, our dossier was submitted this past week to the adoption authorities in our children's country. I was in shock for a couple days. It had finally happened. I told our coordinator, Nancy, that as soon as it hit me I would send her a video of me freaking out! However, when it did hit me, my reaction was an even greater surprise.
Instead of doing a happy dance, I found myself sitting among piles of clothes, overwhelmed by the Grace of God and in tears. I am going through the out-grown clothes we have from Flora, Gavin and Ian to see what can be worn by our new little ones and what we can sell to help raise money to bring them home. I guess the realization that 1. we have only a few weeks to raise the rest of the funds, 2. we are actually at this stage and 3. our precious new babies will be wearing the clothes I was holding in my hands, made it all a bit more real. And so I sat there, in tears, humbled by it all and thinking about that word "submitted".
"Submitted" is a word that holds such depth of meaning. Have you ever thought about it? Dictionary.com has no less that seven meanings three of which are:
to yield oneself to the power or authority of another
to allow oneself to be subjected to some kind of treatment
to defer to another's judgment, opinion, decision, etc.
When we begin an adoption journey we work toward the goal of getting our dossier, (months and months of tears, many many hours and mounds of paperwork) submitted to the governing authorities, but in doing so we also submit ourselves to a higher calling, one which cannot be understood unless you've been through it or been very close to someone who has. We submit ourselves to a process, or goal to persevere until all is completed which enables us to bring the child/ren home. We submit ourselves to someone else's opinion because we have to have a home study created by someone else which judges our motives, our character and our means. We submit ourselves to God's will for our lives even when others would deem us irrational. Yet we submit.
God does not call us to become part of the crowd. He does not ask us to go with the flow. He asks us to submit to His calling on our lives whether it makes sense or not. Noah building an ark on dry land made no sense yet he submitted. Abraham sacrificing his precious, long awaited for, only son made no sense, yet he submitted. Mary, as an unwed teen, was chosen to be the mother of Christ which she must have known would submit her to others ridicule, yet she submitted when she said "be it unto me according to Your will." She submitted. And so do we.
I see the faces of people like Rene, who in the midst of great pain continues to submit to God's calling upon her life to adopt a teen girl who desperately wanted a family. I see Katie who could have easily given up by now, but she perseveres to fight to adopt her precious Rose. I see Andrea and Kathy who started ministries to rescue special needs orphans who would be considered the "least of these" because of their needs. So many families, so many children and just like the saints of old, God gives us strength to continue to submit to His will even when it's not easy.
Many see the little bundle once we get them home and think "aww, how adorable" but have no clue what we have submitted to in order to get to this place. Nor do they have any idea what we will submit to once they are home in order to help them begin to heal emotionally and/or physically. These are all things we've taken into account, rest assured, and part of our choice to submit to this calling upon our lives.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says:
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
6 in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight
So we were submitted this week. We will continue to be submitted because in that submission He will make our paths straight.
