We NEED your PRAYER

What does adoption look like? It looks like James 1:27. It looks like Christ. It looks like the gospel. It looks less like what we want and more like what God wants. Adoption to the world doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why would you want to love someone else's child? Why would you want an interracial family? Why would you risk that?

When we first started our adoption we were looking for that perfect fit for our family, A little girl! We would have her home in no time.  Maybe a year or so. We had our own ideas about what it would look like for our family, but we forgot that God is ultimately in control.  He knows what her name is, where she is, and when she should come home to us. We rest in the fact that He knows and He has her in his hands and will bring her to our family in His time, which is beginning to look like three years or so. Three years is a long time it seems.  So what will we do in the meantime? We thought we would be doing nothing but living our lives and waiting for our family to grow through adoption from Ethiopia.

A few days ago we received an unsolicited call from our social worker. She had a birth mom who would deliver in September with a little boy.  She wanted to know if we knew anyone that was interested.  Casey and I had talked previously that if we could we would love to adopt in the interim time before Willow comes home if the Lord saw fit.  What an amazing providence, so we said we were interested. Actually, we asked for more details.  We would have to decide within 48 hours if we wanted to move forward and would need to pay $5000 deposit to commit to him. No pressure right? Well, we prayed and cried and prayed and cried.  Well, I did anyway. I don't think Casey cried.  We wanted to have faith that the Lord would provide the $19,000 that we needed for this baby, but also didn't want to be presumptuous. A very thin line to be sure.  There was another catch, there was another family also interested.  Somehow they were going to decide which of us it should be. The next morning we received a call that the other family had withdrawn from the process, and that left only us. After much prayer and 48 hours we decided to move forward and so here we are. 

We would ask that you would pray for our family. Pray that the Lord would supply all the money we need to bring this precious baby home. We know that if it's the Lord's will He will provide exactly what we need.  So, Lord willing, in September, Willow will have a brother. A brother that will share her skin tone. She doesn't know it yet and neither does he.  Isn't it amazing how the Lord moves? We are in awe of His goodness and mercy to us.  Pray that we would have faith to press on. We are clinging to Malachi 3:10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.  And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.  This is our cry for this baby boy. And we would name him Malachi. Casey happens to be preaching through Malachi and what a providence that this is the passage for next week.  Most of all we want to see the Lord glorified in all of this and the gospel proclaimed and exemplified through adoption.

thanks, the Houghs