Current Financial Goal: We were praying for $3,262 by today (July 3) and we are thrilled to share that God moved in a mighty way on our behalf. Because of several incredibly generous donors, we were able to raise more than DOUBLE the amount that we needed by today's date!!! With a check by mail combined with the online fundraiser amount, we have reached $6,753!!!
Next Financial Goal: We are now SO CLOSE to reaching the $3,563 that we need by August 19th. Praise God! We are still pushing forward with our fundraiser, as we have a total of around $35,000 that we will need to raise over this next year!
We Discover a Lifeline
I was walking out to my car on a sunny, slow-paced Thursday afternoon. It was April 19th, and the Georgia spring air filled up my lungs as I strolled toward my Honda in an uncrowded Belk parking lot. I had just gotten my eyebrows freshly threaded by my favorite Indian stylist, and my eyes stung with the tiny tears that threatened me each time I subjected myself to this painful custom. I was only a few steps from my car when my phone buzzed. A Facebook message popped up on my screen displaying a response from a sweet friend of mine that I had reached out to a few weeks previously. She and her husband had gone through several years of infertility, and at the start of this year, I had the opportunity to hear her share her testimony of their journey and how God had led them to domestic adoption. In my message, I had asked her about the agency they used and how their experience was, to which she replied that they had used an agency called Bethany, and her experience was great, but that several people she knew used an agency called Lifeline and love them.
As I didn’t have much on my agenda that afternoon, my priorities quickly centered on researching this agency called “Lifeline.” I had already been looking at all the agencies in Georgia and was specifically interested in a Christian adoption agency, and so far I had never heard of this one. I jumped online and scrambled to look up Lifeline— and in an instant, I knew.
I felt such a pull, such a sudden feeling of belonging. It was clear to see that through the language they utilized all over their site, the services they provided, and the countries they worked with, that this was the gospel-centered agency we were meant to work with.
As I perused the “First Steps” section on their site, I happened upon a webinar that was scheduled for that night. I immediately called Steven to ask him if we could “attend”, and he was on board! I just knew it was divinely orchestrated and I felt an urgency that we needed to do this. After working to rearrange some things in our schedule that evening, we were finally ready to sit down for our 7pm online meeting to learn more about this agency and the international adoption process as a whole.
Moments before we stole away to a private room at the church to tune in live to the webinar on my laptop, our best friends laid hands on us and prayed for our meeting. I remember our friend using the words, “Peace, Love, and Joy” towards the end of his prayer over us, and I immediately saw an image in my mind. I couldn’t grasp the understanding of it yet, but what would be revealed as I looked it up later would serve to encourage my heart and spirit in a tremendous way.
The image that appeared to me was a vivid, green, triple-sided cactus with bright pink blossoms:
I stepped away from our prayer time feeling all three of the things spoken over us: peace, love, and joy; and I was anticipating a meeting filled with answers to many questions hidden in my heart and mind about the adoption journey.
The meeting that evening was everything (and more) that I could’ve asked for! Everything that was shared in the hour plus meeting resonated with us spiritually and missionally, and it was all that it needed to be for us to sense a deep confirmation and push to take steps of obedience.
Earlier that night, before we had left the house to tune into the meeting, I was grabbing a blouse from our walk-in closet, and I heard the Holy Spirit whisper to me,
“This is bigger than you.”
I penned this prayer that night when I returned home, full of joy and hope for what God was stirring in us.
You are writing this story, and we surrender to You as you choose the color of the ink, the style of paper, whether it’s hard-bound or paperback, and what the titles of the chapters will say. We don’t know what the ending looks like yet, or even the pages in between- but we know that you’ve written the introduction so far, and we are willing to open up our lives and surrender our plans to what You want these pages to say.
The next morning I awoke in amazement and wonder of what had transpired the night before. We had found our agency! We had truly discovered a Lifeline, and we knew that they were going to play a vital role in the days, months, and years to come. It was the tender beginnings of a new relationship, full of anticipation for the future and all that it would hold.
As joy overcame my heart that morning, I sat up in my bed, suddenly recalling the image I had seen during our best friends’ prayers over us the night before! I instantly looked up any possible symbolism of a Cactus or Cactus Blossom, and as I read, the words leapt off the page and straight into my thirsty heart; I drank up the meaning like a parched soul in a desert:
“The cactus flower is a symbol of maternal love because it can endure and thrive in harsh conditions and therefore symbolic of a mother's unconditional love.”
Regardless of what may come, the love growing inside of this maternal heart of mine will not only endure, but will thrive in the difficult conditions of whatever lies ahead.
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