When asked if I am adopting domestically or internationally, I often pause, jokingly, to ponder our adoption from below the Mason - Dixon Line, “Hmmm … takes us 14 hours to get there … they have their own unique cuisine … and they speak another language!” Example, you ask? Our social worker (a Southern belle herself), known for poking fun at “Southern-speak,” wrote me an e-mail to inform me that the congregation my children and their foster family currently attend will be having some “doin’s” for us when we pick up the kids!

It is such a good feeling to know that, in Christ, you have family, no matter where you go. Just as the congregation I attend here at home has been on tenderhooks right along with us these last ten months; so has the congregation where the kids are. Both we and the foster parents are asked at every service if there has been any news on the adoption. Both congregations have united in prayer to petition the Father for this adoption to transpire according to His will.

When we went down for the road trip, we purposely chose to drive the hour to services at the congregation the children attend, rather than a closer one, simply because we knew everyone wanted to meet us and because they had been so involved in praying for the situation. So, on this trip, we’ve been especially invited so that they can celebrate our new family configuration.

I feel so blessed to know that “this whole adoption process” has been a joint effort of so many in the Christian family God has blessed us with – our social worker, attorney, and the foster family are all members of the church we attend. We’ve had such love and fellowship throughout this journey, and it re-affirms to me the wisdom God used to create His church:

For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact the body is not one member but many. (1 Corinthians 12:12-14)

And:

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. (Romans 12:10-13)

I’m so thankful to be part of something designed by God for my benefit! I’m thrilled about the “doin’s” in our honor, but beyond that, thrilled how God has worked so directly in my life, and through other Christians to minister to my new family!