Praising Him in the Storm.

First of all, I want to thank all of you who I know have been praying since I posted we needed prayer on facebook.

I don't know what I would do without our prayer warriors and we are truly blessed.

 

I went back and forth trying to decide if I wanted to share everything that is going on publicly.

Our hearts are hurting right now and part of me just wanted to bottle it all up, sit in my room with a tub of ice cream, and have a pity party.

After spending time in prayer, I realized that sharing our story is an important part of giving God glory.

I am not sure what the ending of this story is going to look like, but I know it will be for our good and God's glory.

 

The other night, we got the call from our agency that every adoptive parents dreads.

The birth father, who has been no where to be found for months, has come back and is saying that he wants the baby and will fight the adoption.

 

As scary as this is, it does not necessarily mean that we will not bring Penelope home.

"K" still does NOT want the baby.

She was very adamant on the phone with the agency that she has no interest in parenting.

Unfortunately, the birth father is a large, abusive man and will no longer let "K" communicate with the agency.

 

So as of right now, the agency has no contact with her. 

As far as they know, she does not want the baby...he does.

An alert has been sent out to the local hospitals to call the agency if "K" showed up at the hospital.

"K" and the birth father will not be allowed to go home with Penelope.

If they decide they want to parents, CPS will step in and take her.

If CPS gets her, we will never see her.

 

We are hoping that the chances of that happening are slim.

We got to have a long visit with "K" in which she explained her dislike of CPS.

She really believes that they are the worst possible place for a child to go and I really do believe that she will call the agency before letting her child be turned over to the government.

If she decides she wants us to have the baby, hopefully the hospital will work with her and our agency will get a call.

 

If she decides she wants to give us the baby, we will still have to deal with the birth father.

He will have to take a paternity test to make sure he is the father.

Birth fathers have to pay for their own tests and get their own transportation.

Therefore, many of them never follow through with getting the test.

Now if he got the test, and turned out to be the real father, CPS would take the baby away from us and we would never see her again.

 

The emotions that I have been dealing with the past couple of days have been unreal but we are doing good.

God is good ALL the time....I truly believe that.

I think about why God calls people to serve him.

He doesn't call us so we can live easy, happy, lives where we get everything we want.

He calls us so we can further the kingdom of God.

He calls us so we can carry out His will here on earth.

He calls us to mold us into Godly individuals.

 

When I first heard this news, I immediately thought, "Why wont he just bless us with our children coming home?  What did we do wrong?"

I had a few moments of weakness where I was angry and felt like giving up.

I felt like maybe God just forgot about us.

 

But He didn't.

I am sitting here with 3/4 of my children stuck in dangerous awful situations that I can do nothing about.

Sure I am sad and there are tears.

But I am joyful.

I am hopeful.

I am praising God for how awesome he has shown himself in my life.

I am praising the God who gives, and the God who takes away.

Ever since becoming a believer, I struggled with the idea of praising God even in a storm.

I wondered how it could even be possible.

I now, I am blessed with the chance and the ability to praise Him through this storm and it feels so powerful.

 

God has given us a peace that truly does pass all understanding.

In my head I know I should be freaking out.

But my heart is so calm.

My heart knows that He has got this.

 

PRAYER REQUESTS

 

First, please continue praying that we feel peace through this process.  I know the next couple of weeks of waiting for a call and not knowing if we even will get one are going to be rough.

 

Second, there are certain hospitals that are pro-adoption and certain ones that are anti-adoption.  The anti-adoption hospitals would prefer that the baby go into foster care than be adopted.  Please pray that "K" ends up at one of the pro-adoption hospitals and that they call our agency right away. 

 

Third, Please pray for the hearts of the birth family.  They were created in the image of God just like you and me and we love them.  We are praying for their salvation and praying that they see that CPS is just not a good option for little Penelope.

 

I will keep you guys updated just as soon as I know anything.