Recently, I talked with a couple in church that are waiting to adopt. They finished their home study and are now a waiting family. They didn’t ask me for any advice but I gave it to them anyway. I told them this. When we were done with all the busy work of adoption and began to wait, I would pray and pray and pray for our child that was coming, for the birth family, for the process, for our life together. Sometimes I would run out of prayers to pray and would feel like a broken record……but I still wanted to talk to God about this child we were waiting for.
I chose a passage of scripture to pray and read. Psalm 139 was the one God led me to and as I moved through my waiting days, on a walk, in the car, whenever I was thinking about the child who would join our family, I could go to Psalm 139 and read and know that those words were my prayers, too. I encouraged that couple in church to find a scripture and just start to pray it to Jesus, to read it to each other, to whisper it to their own selves……
Psalm 139 has come back again and again to me over the years, and will always be a part of that particular child’s story. I thank God for using His Holy Word to guide me through one of the hardest waiting seasons of my life.
Recently I reread Isaiah 43 with fresh ears…..in verse 4 it says “Since you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you, nations in exchange for your life.” Our birth mom shared that when she learned she was pregnant, she heard God tell her “this child is precious in my sight and I have great plans for her”…..and she decided to name her Precious and asked us to keep that name when we adopted her. The power of God’s words, to stamp truth onto our life and existence, should never be underestimated. He told her that this child was Precious……..and I can re-read it in scripture anytime I look up Isaiah 43…….and smile and know that God is speaking and working and moving all the time.
