Call to Prayer

Each time I sit to write in this journal, I think about my audience—my children.  There are probably dozens of people who read this each time I post the latest news on our family blog, and I am thankful for those friends, family members and prayer partners who are walking this road with us, but they are not who I write for.  I have some very specific objectives in mind as I document this journey step by step.  I want this blog to be a way for God to reveal his faithfulness to our family and I have always envisioned my children, years from now, reading over these words and saying, “Look how God answered your prayer!” or “How miraculous that God knew we would be together so long before you did!” or “You loved me for so long before you knew me.”  Those years-from-now children/adolescents/adults are who I speak to each time I write in this journal.

Today needs to be a little different, though we have hope that God will use even this moment for His great Glory in our family.  This post is a call to prayer.  If you are reading this in June of 2009, then we need you to lift your heart and your voice to the Lord on our behalf and on behalf of the family that God has designed for us. 

We learned today that the judge who will decide whether to grant us custody of the 4 children who we know in our hearts are OUR children—on the day before she left for a 4 week vacation—was presented with our case.  She saw our case and the case of the children we long to adopt and decided that this was a big decision and that we were very young to adopt four children and that she would wait until returning from her vacation to make a decision. 

We have decided to write a heart-felt, information-filled letter to this judge and request that CEJA (who is 100% on our side for this adoption) submit it on top of the paperwork that the judge will see when she returns (refreshed) from her vacation.  This latest delay may prove to be God’s provision since this is a beautiful opportunity to add our personal voice and plea to a stack of papers written about us by others close to a year ago and long before we knew the names of Maynara, Abraão Lucas, Luana and Brayan.

Friends and family, please pray that the judge will see our hearts and desire to unite us as a family with our children.  Please pray that any notions she may have about the appropriate age of new adoptive parents will be set aside and that our love for these children and our strength in the Lord will be clear and obvious. 

Dearest Father in Heaven,
You know how we love these children and how we already see them as ours.  Reveal yourself to the judge.  Show her your heart and your plan for our family.  Fill her with mercy and compassion. 

Dearest children of my heart,
Can you see how your Lord has connected us from long before we first held on to each other?  Can you see how He’ll never let you go and how He’ll never let this family dissolve?