I’ve been trying to figure something out recently, trying to get a bead on God’s will about something adoption-related.  I can’t blog yet about what the something is, so for the purposes of this post, I’ll call it Project HulaHoop.  Okay, so in the last couple of days, something’s popped out at me that’s completely revolutionized my prayer life.

Over and over, I hear from women who want to adopt but their husbands’ hearts aren’t in the same place.  I’ve been blessed with a husband who DOES want to adopt, but our hearts still operate a little differently within the big ol’ realm of adoption.  Pretty much every week, I go to him saying, “There’s a 15-year-old boy who’s only adoptable for one more week!  We have to adopt him!”  ”There’s a family of 7 kids in foster care.  We have to adopt them!”  ”There’s a baby here in town who needs a family!  We have to adopt her!”  Kids needing fostering, kids needing forever homes, old kids, new kids, red kids, blue kids.  And my husband receives it all…and smiles…and lets me down gently.

Currently we’re working on Project HulaHoop.  Both our hearts collided about it at the same time.  But we have a lot of questions about Project HulaHoop.  And we’re not sure if the hoop is going to keep spinning or clatter to the ground.  We’re not sure whether to keep gyrating our hula-hooping hips or let the hula hoop circle to our ankles.  I’ve been praying Lord Lord Lord Lord gimme gimme gimme gimme wisdom gimme discernment gimme gimme soak a fleece speak to me gimme gimme help help help.

I felt like God smacked me in the face with Ephesians 5 for something related to Project HulaHoop, and as I read the second chunk of that chapter, I felt lead to stop praying for wisdom for myself and start praying for my husband!  Oh, I mean, I pray for me-wisdom all the time and that’s awesome and fabulous and I’ll continue to do that for ever and ever, but for this particular thingy that I’ve been noodling, I need to pray for God to give Alex some serious wisdom.

I’ve been studying Lineage of Grace, by Francine Rivers, with my high school girls, and I happened upon this really interesting point last week.  God spoke to Mary once, but He spoke to Joseph four times.  And I get that, I think.  For my particular situation, my heart goes out to every child in need.  I want to do something about every need that hits my Facebook wall.  Alex has a huge heart, too, but he responds differently.  Instead of getting frustrated with his differing opinion or seeming lack of action, I need to pray for God to speak to him!  And I need to pray that I’ll hear God through Alex.  Because, well, I already know which way I think we should go, most of the time.  It’s when Alex feels the same way that I really know we’re heading in the right direction.  I need some confirmation right now about Project HulaHoop, so I’m praying for some serious discernment for Alex.  I ran up to his office and told him to look alert so he doesn’t miss it when God leads him.  I told him that I’m praying for him to hear from God and I trust him completely.  Yeah, no pressure there, big guy.

Tags: Adoption, Alex, Scripture, Time with God