Blessed Beyond...


He told us that God wanted to "bless us in huge ways."  He continued to say, "I'm not just talking about blessing your youth ministry, or even this mission trip, but he wants to bless you beyond what you can imagine in something you've been praying for in your home."  "He" was a Youth Pastor of one of my friends from Honduras, whom I had just met about an hour before he spoke those words.

There have been very few times that someone has spoken prophetically to me and I didn't walk away feeling like I was questioning everything they said.  This was one of those moments.  I felt as though God was speaking through this man directly to Nate and I.  I walked away feeling confident that God was up to something, and while I had no idea what, he was going to do something seriously awesome.  That happened on August 16th.

Fast forward to this past Thursday, September 21, just a little over a month later.  Nate and I both received a phone call from our social worker, which we both ironically missed.  We figured it was big news and got super excited.  The big news we have been waiting for is that we are registered for court for the adoption.  Once you get registered, you know that you are just about 5-6 months away from passing (which it tends to take 5-6 times to pass), and then we would get to travel in the Spring to bring home our little one.

You can imagine our surprise when the social worker said, "Congrats!  You passed court.  You're going to travel most likely within the next month to three months.  Drop the mic.

Like as in October?  November?  Thanksgiving?  Christmas?  Biruk's Birthday (which ironically he said about 5 months ago she would be home for).  She could be home for those?  We were totally in shock.  Like in a major awesome way...blessed beyond what we could have imagined

The next day a friend of one of my sisters called and told us that she wanted to gift us with some money that she had planned for to use for her own adoption.  Unfortunately, she and her family had hit several walls and it just hadn't seemed to work.  When I spoke with her on the phone, she said, "I mean we aren't sure if we'll ever get an adoption to go through, but it's silly for this money to sit.  We want to give you $7000 for yours."  Drop the mic again.  $7000?  The next morning she called and and added another $1000, just because.  In a $40,000 process for us, that is HUGE.  I couldn't help but think...it's serious blessing beyond what we could imagine.

And then this morning happened.   In August, I had the privilege of taking my youth group to Honduras for a 10 day Missions Trip.  It was on that trip that the Youth Pastor prayed those things over us it was just this past week we found out we miraculously passed court.  This morning, our teens shared about their God moments, and I shared mine.  It was though everything came full circle.  Just when I thought I couldn't feel any more full, I turned around and my teens...MY TEENS...handed me a check for almost $2000 to go toward our adoption.  They had collected it (with some help from their families) as a gift to us for the work on the mission trip.  Drop the mic once more.

"God wants to bless you in ways that you can't imagine.  He wants to bless you in regards to things you've both been praying about in your home.  I don't know you, but I know that God wants you to hear this."  The words keep playing over and over again.

I'm not sure that I have the words to express enough thanks to God, but I was reminded this morning, as I was surrounded by a group of teenagers that I am so proud of and as we sang "How Great is Our God in English and Spanish...God's got us.  He's totally got us.  He doesn't call us on this journey and then let us fend for ourselves.  He.  Is.  A.  Great.  God.  May his name be praised.

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