Steven, Orphans, and God

Steven is 13 years old today. He is a wonderful, funny, gifted young man and we are blessed to have him in our family.

When we were in the process of adopting him and one miracle after another was unfolding, I got the distinct sense that this was not our doing. God was doing something powerful here, and we were only along for the ride, with very little control over what would happen next.

There's something about adopting a child that makes everyone come out of the woodwork with their own adoption stories, and we have heard many in the last three years. Over and over, people have told me of hardnosed caseworkers and judges who suddenly had a change of heart, dates that clicked into place not a day too soon or too late, uncanny events surrounding the adoption, and many more coincidences that can only be credited to God's hand orchestrating it all.

So I have had the sense that something big is afoot in God's kingdom with this whole thing of orphans and adoption. Ok, maybe it's been happening for years, I don't know, I just know that I've had an increasing awareness of it, like an approaching freight train.

And now more and more Christian ministries are getting involved in caring for orphans, and World magazine told how entire churches are taking in orphans.

How like God to unleash his power for the smallest, the poorest, the weakest, the abandoned ones with no voice and no power and no one to speak for them.

Read more here and here.

Quote of the Day:
"You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed. . ."
Psalm 10:17,18 NIV