How BIG is our God?

We've been trying to move for almost five years now. At first, it was an attempt to move to a neighboring town in order to be closer to Andy's work and free him of his 1 hour commute. Then, as we watched God double the size of our family, the search began for a bigger house. The four of us are bursting the seams of our little 2 bedroom home. So we've become hunters. We've looked at more houses than I can even recall right now, some we've loved and some we've hated but none have worked out. We've even had signed sales agreements. (Several.) We've had offers on our house that fell through. There have been all kinds of deals and plans that almost worked... but never quite. This has gone on for the better part of 5 years until we just got tired of looking. Obviously, the Lord was telling us to stay put so we decided we would.

(Stick with me here for a bit, I promise this is all related...)

Over a year ago, I began to feel a tugging at my heart for adoption. Initially, I wasn't sure if this was from God and if it was, what in the world I was supposed to do about it. But weeks turned into months and the tugging in my heart turned into a throbbing ache. How it snowballed, I couldn't explain, but I also couldn't ignore it. I found myself surfing adoption websites, weeping for orphans whose names I will never know. A cause I had never before paused to give a moment's thought was now breaking my heart every day. Literally. My only explanation was Jesus. He laid this burden on my heart but now what was I to do with it?

Pray? Certainly.
Give? Yup.
Advocate? Check.
Adopt? Wait, WHAT?

My hesitation to jump on the adoption bandwagon wasn't because I didn't want more kids. 4, 5, 6? Bring them on. And it wasn't because I feared the expense. I know adoption is outrageously expensive but I also know that when God asks you to do something, He always provides. My hesitation to embrace this call to adoption came down to one thing: Andy.

Andy is a fantastic father and an amazing husband and I am more proud of him than I can put into words. However, he made it clear, in no uncertain terms, that he absolutely, positively wanted no more children. Period. End of discussion. How could I reconcile God's apparent call to adoption with Andy's adamant stance? What was I to do with a vision for our family that wasn't shared?

Honestly, my only answer was to whine to God for a while. (I'm good at that.) Then I prayed. I basically told Jesus that I was in 100% and I trusted that this adoption desire was from Him, but if He wanted it to go anywhere He had to start softening Andy's heart and tearing down some walls. Time went on and I shared with Andy a little of what God had laid on my heart and I kept praying. I tried not to push... or preach... or nag... or leave post-its with James 1:27 laying all over the house. (Although the last one was especially tempting.) I kept waiting. And I kept praying.

I want to tell you that I prayed with the whole-hearted conviction that the Holy Spirit would win Andy's heart for adoption. The truth is, I prayed because it was really the only thing I could do. I believed that God might, possibly change Andy's heart but that if He did, it would be years from now. I thought maybe one day when the girls were in high school and we'd had a break from chasing toddlers and changing diapers, he might warm up to the idea. So you can imagine my total shock when about a month ago Andy came home from work to tell me he had been surfing adoption websites. "That whole adoption thing?" he told me, "I'm in." Whoa doesn't even begin to cover it. How BIG is our God?

After I stopped blubbering like an idiot, we put the girls in the stroller and went for a walk. I can tell you exactly where we were in town, down to the exact square of sidewalk, when we prayed something along the lines of, "Jesus, we're in. You have moved our hearts for adoption and we're saying YES! Now the ball is in your court. We can't move forward in the house we're in, Jesus. We barely fit now. If you want us to pursue adoption, we trust that you will provide our new home along with the finances needed. We are waiting on you."

Fast forward to two weeks later.

You read that right: TWO WEEKS LATER, we hear that our neighbors are selling their home... selling the home that we have secretly loved for years but never in our wildest dreams imagined being able to afford... selling their home for exactly the price we can afford... selling their home in the hopes of downsizing to a smaller, 2 bedroom one. In the space of one week, we signed a sales agreement for their house and they signed one for our house. Three weeks from the moment we prayed that prayer until we held two signed sales agreements in our hands ~ if that is not confirmation of our call to adoption, I don't know what is. How BIG is our God? (Our estimated move date looks to be mid/late May but we'll keep you posted.)

Please let me be clear: I am NOT saying if you want to sell your house, tell God you are willing to adopt. I am NOT saying that God will answer your big prayer in three weeks flat. What I AM saying is: 1.) When God calls, he always provides. And 2.) Our God is in the business of changing hearts.

So, dear friends, to say we are excited would be an understatement. How BIG is our God? I think we've only seen the tiniest glimpse so far but we are going to hang on tight and eagerly watch to see what He is going to do next.

And the adoption thing? We are thrilled to be able to tell you that our days of being a family of four are numbered. But more on that later...