Measuring Luggage and Sizing up God's Care

You know that when you start pulling the luggage out of the closet and actually measuring it with a tape measure that you're getting close to something!  We are getting much, much closer to being able to hold sweet Benjamin.  Not close enough for my liking,  but so much closer than we were! We will likely travel early to mid October.  To tide us over we received a new update last week.  Enjoy the pictures of our sweet guy below. Better than Christmas I tell you!!

Sweet boy learning to blow kisses with one of his nannies. 

 On July 28th we received our Letter of Acceptance from China.  Getting this letter was a HUGE step!! This means that China has officially approved us to become Benjamin's parents.  The only steps that are left are all on the US side of things until we get to the point where China is able to issue travel approval to us. And, did I mention that there are only 6 steps left before we actually travel?  Just six little steps and they're not big steps either! Small steps compared to the steps we've already taken!

The wait for our Letter of Acceptance was very hard for me.  Our agency had told us that the wait for that little FedEx package could be anywhere from 30 to 90 days - and sometimes longer.  Ours actually came on day 63 of our wait, which is relatively short compared to some of the wait times I've seen lately.  So, yes, I am a waiting wimp!  I'm pretty sure it has to do with a lack of control.  ;)   I've known for quite some time (actually all my life) that I like to be in control, but never was that more apparent than during this wait.  God is faithful, though, and he showed me something during this time.

You see on about day 57 or so I was done! I know, wimp!  I was so down in the dumps thinking we'd never get to China.  My mind kept thinking of Benjamin's medical issues and just the fact that he's in an orphanage without a family and I was a wreck!  I wanted to be there now!  There was not a doubt in my mind that God was big enough to work in this situation.  I kept repeating Ephesians 3:20-21 in my mind.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,  according to his power that is at work within us,  to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

My real question wasn't God's power. It was his care and compassion.  I knew that he could act, that he could move mountains, so why wasn't he?  Didn't he care about Benjamin, about us?

That afternoon, as I questioned, God answered.  I had to take my oldest to swim practice and I just decided to wait for him in the car.  My two younger kids were asleep in the backseat and I needed a mama time-out.  I got my phone out and decided to read a blog post that I had skipped over earlier that day.  This post was written by another China adoption mom and she was describing how they had revealed to their parents whether they were adopting a boy or a girl.  It was a cute post and it took my mind off things for a while.  When I got to the end of the post, though, she talked about how they had decided to name their little boy Benjamin.  Benjamin?  My radar went up.  She said that they had been a little unsure about the name, but then she turned in her Bible one day to a fairly random place and read these words from Deuteronomy 33:12.

About Benjamin he said: "Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders."

You are kidding me! God did not have me a read a verse about Moses giving his blessing to the tribes of Israel and it specifically say that Benjamin is his beloved, that he rests secure in him and that the Lord shields him all day long on the very day that I was questioning his care and love for our Benjamin!  God is good!  He is working this all out for our good and His glory!! 

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! Psalm 96:3

Because we are getting closer to travel time, I am going to  try to write several blog posts this week.