If your journey in foster care or adoption is anything like mine, you know it can feel like a rollercoaster with twists and turns, leaving you with a full range of emotions. Expectations have gone unmet, and you may be questioning whether God really called you to this journey. Should we just get off the ride when it gets tough?
I recently had the opportunity to speak to this at a breakout session at the Replanted Conference. I shared about my own story of waiting and a failed adoption to remind you that there is purpose in the hard.
HERE ARE MY 3 TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS SESSION:
1. God uses our disappointments.
When we say yes, we often assume that God is going to bless our yes with His yes. My husband Clint and I were fearful of adoption and foster care, but in fear, we moved forward. We said yes, but our yes was met with a no, and another no, and again, it continued. Looking back, I received an even kinder gift from God when in my pain and disappointment, I found myself clinging to Him more tightly.
“God had become my first. He had used my brokenness to make Himself my first.”
2. We see God’s perspective through His Word.
God was teaching me to seek after His will, not my own. Still, the pain of unmet expectations was devastating. I begged for His perspective and searched His Word for reminders of His promises. I found the book of Job to be the example I needed. We must trust that God will do what He says He will, even when it doesn’t line up with our desires. We need His strength to remain firmly rooted in our faith.
“I will not understand it. I will not like it often. We don’t even have to make sense of it. But, we do need to trust that He is God and we are not. He sees it differently.”
3. Our children are learning hard but important lessons.
We want to protect our children from hurt. We don’t want them to grieve. We feel our own grief and don’t want that for our children. But, God uses hard circumstance to not only shape us, but also our children. I saw that when my daughter beautifully articulated her thoughts on our family’s failed adoption in a school assignment. We can’t allow the unexpected to completely de-rail us; we must trust in the sovereignty of God and allow Him to work in our lives and the lives of our children. God just might be drawing your children closer to Him, too.
“Without the hard, I would never have seen the good so vividly.”
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