and then He spoke...

After realizing that the little girl in my dream (that I wrote about here) was actually sweet little R., you might think that it was completely obvious that we should adopt her. But, we weren't sure if she this child was symbolic of something that the Lord was asking of us, or if she was actually supposed to become our daughter. So, we prayed....

And for what seemed a very long time, we heard nothing...

We didn't give up, but we did put our thoughts of R. in check and simply waited. We believed that we had to have confirmation from the Lord that we were to adopt R., and we did not feel that we could move ahead without it. You see, she would be our third child who was ten years old. We needed to know that the Lord was in this, and that we would be able to meet the needs of all of our children if we adopted R.

Also, we knew that the Lord was asking me to teach at our Church's school the following year. This would require a lot of time and energy. We had to know that it was the Lord who was asking us to adopt R., because if it was Him, we could trust that despite these obstacles, all would work out for His glory...and we so desperately wanted His glory.

Then, there came a week where I felt an intense burden to pray for sweet R. Unbeknownst to me, there was a wonderful woman (one who loves R. deeply), who also had a burden to pray during that time. I didn't know this woman at the time, but have since "met" her through the internet and will forever be grateful for her prayers for precious R.

One evening during that week, I was at The Prayer House in our city. I was praying for R. and for the people where she lives. I thought that I heard the Lord ask me, "What are you waiting for? Why wait? Why so long?" And then, strangely, I fell asleep.

I probably slept for about ten minutes. Upon waking, the Lord gave me a vision. In the vision, I saw Grace, falling into a rushing river...

And then He spoke (this time I knew that it was Him). He said:  "Love would not ask, 'Should I jump in?'...Love would jump in! The Church is Love. R. is drowning. Jump in!"

He spoke! And this was the confirmation that I was looking for. I knew without a doubt, that sweet R. really was supposed to be our daughter. Now, I just needed to wait for David to have the same sort of confirmation for himself...