My Ebenezer

Posted May 14th 2005

by Ebenezer

After 3 1/2 years of walking through the hazy defeat of infertility, we’ve finally decided to adopt. The decision has already impacted us in ways we never imagined possible. To say we are happier doesn’t come close to explaining the weight that has been lifted. It finally feels sunny again. For years, life just felt kind of “foggy.”

I won’t linger on that subject because we’ve closed that chapter of our lives and are eager to move forward. Instead, I’ll share with you the story of “Grace”. In January, our decision was made to stop fertility treatments but we had not yet taken steps toward adoption. A call from a friend changed everything.

A child we’ll call Grace was in foster care. She was 14 months old and her foster family was head over heels in love but could not adopt another child. My friend had a friend who knew Momma Foster and wanted to put me in touch with her. Information changed hands so many times, we weren’t sure what the story was; one thing we knew for sure was that Grace had been given to us through a child we’ll call Grace.

It took a week for us to get in touch with my friend’s friend – the one who knew Momma Foster – because they were on vacation for a week. That week gave us the time we needed to decide this really is what we want to do. We knew we’d adopt eventually but just hadn’t yet felt like the timing was right – until Grace. This story is not so much about the child we call Grace as it is about God’s Grace – the way we feel God helped “move us along” in our adoption process.

You see, during that week I felt a tug on my heart telling me that I should call “The Adoption Lady”. “The Adoption Lady” is a lady I remembered hearing about a few years ago – she goes to our church and has adopted several children and fostered more than fifty. I spoke with The Adoption Lady years ago but couldn’t remember her name and just kept pushing aside the prompting I felt in my heart to call her. I knew she would be a great resource to guide us through the process, but I wanted to talk with Momma Foster before anyone else. So I waited. A week has never passed more slowly.

Finally, I talked to the friend of my friend and she told me what she knew of Grace. She wanted to put me in touch with Momma Foster right away so I could get even more information and find out what steps to take. Then she took my breath away. She told me the name of Momma Foster – Momma Foster is The Adoption Lady! Momma Foster and I had a long talk that night and I when I hung up the phone I was more certain than ever that Grace had entered my life. For me, this was God’s way of pointing us in the right direction. He knows where our children are and He’s guiding us to them.

Because I know you are wondering, Grace is not likely the child God has for us. The story was never about her, but about Him. And us. God used Grace to show us Grace.

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 “Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”NKJV

Cindy

tags: Adoption, UnCategorized 2 comments