We didn't fly to Ethiopia this weekend but we got as close as we could by going to see an art exhibit by Ethiopian artist Elias Sime at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. If you are in the area, it's well worth the trip. He works in mixed media and uses materials like bubble wrap, yarn and buttons as part of his representations of Ethiopian life. Another part of the exhibit involved ongoing footage from the streets of Addis being projected on the wall of the museum. Seeing this footage was enlightening as it gives you a window into the kind of environment many of our children are coming from. My perceptions of Addis were very different from what I saw in the video footage.
This weekend I also finished the book Love in the Driest Season by Nelly Tucker. The book is a memoir that tells the story of an American couple's struggle to adopt an orphan girl in Zimbabwe. This book was really helpful to me because it gave me a sense of how things work in Africa. I am getting the feeling that what we are seeing in Ethiopia (random delays, unclear guidelines, processes that are inconsistent) is not unusual across Africa. I know for us, we didn't realize the nature of what we would be dealing with when we began this process. Our agency has never really talked about the nature of adopting in Africa. I think that is an important point to be discussed because, as many of us have seen, this seems to be a very different game we are playing here, particularly for those accustomed to American norms for conducting business and legal transactions.
It's been an interesting few weeks. Thanks to all of you have commented on our blog and shared your personal stories with us. I am amazed at how many people are going through the exact same thing right now. There are so many of us who have been delayed multiple times across agencies, particularly those of us adopting multiple children. To me, this is all the more reason to pray for the collective deliverance of our children.
I must confess I have never considered myself one of those "faith people". I am rational and logical to a fault. My head tends to run things more than my heart does most of the time. I have often looked at my father who seems to have a spiritual gift for faith and thought "how cool that he has that kind of faith" while at the same time not finding myself able to relate to his faith-saturated worldview because of the dominance of my own intellect in so many situations. This experience with our girls has caused me to reexamine my own view of faith.
Being at a place now where I feel that my family is being threatened, I have shifted my posture. Given that there is nothing else I can do in my own intellect and competence, I have been forced to turn to God. I have been forced to cry out to God for the deliverance of my children. Through this, I have learned that there are many promises God has given us that I may not really believe if belief connotes action. In my life as a Christian, I have confessed that God is real and His word is true but my practical application of those beliefs now appears somewhat limited.
Jesus said in John "Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I will do it" (John 14:13). Later again in John, Jesus says "Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give it to you. Until now, you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (John 16:23-24). I think that for the most part I have written off the literal interpretation of these types of scriptures as the domain of big-haired, private-jet-owning televangelists -not really my crowd. But now I'm asking myself what if these promises really are true in the literal sense? If they are, then perhaps I have been missing something. For the first time in my life, I feel like I am coming from a place of desperation and REALLY asking God for something in faith because that is all I have left. I am asking God to deliver my children and I am believing Him that He will do what I have asked and make our joy complete by making our family whole.
So here is what I propose. If you too are standing in faith interceding for your children or the children of people you love then let's join forces in prayer this Wednesday. Let us make Wednesday a day of prayer and fasting and ask God to hear the prayers of His people as we cry out to Him for the children of Ethiopia. According to our agency, we will find out at the "end of this week" if the courts will give us new court dates. Let's come together on Wednesday and cry out to God to move. I believe He hears our prayers and that He loves our children more than we do. Let us unite as His church - a church that knows no boundaries of state or nation - and ask Him to make a "road in the wilderness"(Is. 43:19) for our children to come home. In our family, we will be praying all day on Wednesday but we will pray specifically together at 6:30pm Pacific Standard Time if you want to join us at the same time we are praying.
George Mueller said, "Our work is to lay our petitions before the Lord, and in childlike simplicity to pour out our hearts before Him saying, 'I do not deserve that you should hear me and answer my requests but for the sake of my precious Lord Jesus, for His sake, answer my prayer. And give me grace to wait patiently until it pleases You to grant my petition. for I believe You will do it in in Your own time and way.'... Oh the hundred of thousands of times I have found this to be true...When it seemed impossible for help to come, it did come, for God has His own unlimited resources to help."
Let us call upon the unlimited resources of God this week and wait on Him.
If you plan to join us on Wednesday, would you please reply this post? It means so much to know that we are standing together with others in prayer for the children of Ethiopia.
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