A Family Recipe

 Ingredients:

1. 2 children in a foster home in Tucson, AZ, waiting for a family.

2. A husband and wife, married 6 years, waiting for God to grow their family.

3. God's eternal sovereignty that moves the man and wife to Tucson, AZ.

Directions:

Just add water.

I'm sitting in my freshly-organized living room on my favorite red over-sized chair, enjoying the sun and breeze-blown trees out my windows and the quiet in the house; it's nap time around here. Olivia is asleep in my bed, a special treat. "Peas, Mommy, I seep your own room, nap?" she had asked this morning. She was singing the hymn Rock of Ages to herself a while ago but has quieted down now, so I know she is sleeping. Daniel is in his room and I can hear him chattering away to himself, having a conversation with someone about how he is in the Air Force and has to go to Africa now. "But it's OK, because that's what God wants me to do. And I gotta obey God."

With all the stunningly fast changes and adjustments, I forget to stop and realize what is going on here. God, before He made time, had planned all this. He planned for Mike and me to be unable to have children naturally. He planned for Daniel and Olivia to be born into a family that didn't know Him and just couldn't get their lives together. He planned for them to be placed in a foster home that loves Him and His word and that kept them in their home for over 2 years, praying for a Christian family to come along. He planned to bring Mike and me to Tucson, and to have us all meet up in the same little church.

When we moved here in August, God made it clear pretty quickly which church was for us, and we quickly got involved. We got to know several families, one being the kids' foster family. They had us over for dinner and it was fun getting to know them and meeting their cute foster kids, but no one thought much of what would happen.

One night, about 2 months after moving here, another young couple had us over for dinner. They had been planning on adopting 2 kids from within the church but had just that day decided it wasn't God's plan for them; they had twins a few months ago and were already on to number 3. "You aren't interested in adopting 2 kids, are you? Haha." Jesse had said. Mike and I had driven separately, and on our drives home, we both prayed about it. I decided not to say a thing about it, but to let the Lord do all the work in Mike's heart. And He did. The next morning we woke up, and Mike said, "France, we need to seriously pray about these kids." Crazy! So we did, and we called all of our immediate family to pray with us. Almost immediately we felt we should at least move forward with it, whatever that meant, so we waited and prayed for a week to make sure. By the end of the week we had met with our friends to learn where exactly do we go from here, and had enrolled in the 10-week-long classes that the state requires we take in order to foster or adopt. Because God was just rolling out His plan, the next class started in just a couple of weeks.

And so began all of the paperwork and assignments and To Do lists and home visits and evaluations and prayers. Oh my, how many prayers have been said! We have had SO many people praying with us through this, it has been humbling to know that so many of you love us and prayed so fervently for us, and it has been exciting to see God answer your prayers! Truly amazing, to see Him working through your prayers.

There were lots of nights of confusion and seeking God's will, learning to trust in ways I've not had to before, coming to the point of truly saying "Lord, my life is Yours, do with it what You want! I will follow." Scary, but so wonderful to learn in a new way trust my Jesus.

Early in February a meeting was held at the adoption agency to choose between us and another family. Early in the afternoon, Mike called and asked if I was sitting down. I was driving to the grocery store so I pulled over and he said, "We've been chosen!" What a strange feeling! I quickly changed directions and drove straight to the base so I could give him a quick hug and kiss before he flew that day, then got to work making T-shirts that said "Mom" and "Dad" for later that day when we would skype and tell all of our family.

Our families are too wonderful to really explain...everyone has been so excited and supportive and encouraging and level-headed. We have the best families! It was so fun to tell everyone - Mike's parents, Aba and Abo, who were now becoming the grandparents of not 3 but 5 children; Uncle Travis and Aunt Candy and their 3 kids who were getting 2 brand new cousins; my parents who were becoming Grandma and Grandpa for the very first time; Uncle Jon, Aunt Gaga, Uncle Sam, and Aunt Tess who were all becoming first-time aunts and uncles! It was such a fun night.

The next day began the "transition"...another story. From that night we started praying about the kids to the day they moved in with us as our son and daughter, it was almost exactly 4 months. That's pretty fast. But so obviously God's plan and so easy to ride the wave of His sovereignty and love.

This verse was huge for me through all of the emotions and questions and unknowns:

"The steps of a man are established by the Lord, and He delights in his way. When he falls, he will not be hurled headlong, because the Lord is the One who holds his hand." 

Psalm 37:23-24

Through the last six months, the thing we asked for the most from the Lord was for Him to make it clear to us what His will was so we could do it. He was gracious and answered our prayers, and here we are in His will, with a little girl sweetly asleep in our bed and a little boy in his room imagining he is grown up and just like his Daddy.

First God plans our lives, then He delights in watching His plan unfold. He is good! The God who made the Milky Way is delighting in forming and growing our little family of four. Lord, let this little family live for You!