As I mentioned in my prior post regarding our mission trip to Costa Rica, a man told my husband and I that the Lord was going to bless us with another baby girl. Thrilled with the prospect of another baby, we believed that anything was possible with God. However, as each month passed and still no pregnancy, I began to question God about His divine plan for our lives.
One day as I was praying, I asked the Lord to direct our steps and tell us what our purpose was. I didn’t expect He would give me such a quick response… but boy did he ever!
The Lord told me that I would foster His children. I thought, “Ok, well that settles that. I will be a foster mom.” Wait a minute; I don’t know anything about being a foster mom. What all did it entail?
After sharing the news with my husband, he responded, “I guess we are going to be adopting some children.” At this point, I was not sure if “adopting” meant the same thing as “fostering” but I was excited to see what God had in mind.
Later that day the kids and I decided to stop in to visit an old friend of the family. When I walked in the door, a young lady was talking with the daughter of our family friend. I introduced myself to this young lady whose name was Christina. I smiled. “That will be easy to remember because my name is Christina too.” That broke the ice.
We continued to visit for a while. The unspoken drama in the room was heavy. It was obvious she was pregnant. When I asked about the father she confided that he was not in the picture nor would he ever be apart of this child’s life. She was overwrought and certainly not excited about being pregnant considering the circumstances. There’s more…she had a two-year-old daughter that she was trying to regain custody of after CPS had stepped in and taken control. The father of the two-year-old was in jail. This young lady definitely needed some help! I also found out that she had been a foster child growing up.
I suddenly remembered that morning during prayer that I had heard from the Lord and that I would “foster” His children. I thought perhaps I am supposed to “foster” this young lady. Yes, she is a little older than I expected… 21 and all… but I thought, “Well, Lord, she surely does need help. So I offered to help her. “Call me with anything you need help with and I will do what I can …” I told her…and then I headed home.
Months went by and not a word from her.
Meanwhile, my husband and I became involved in a bible study. We asked for prayer regarding my husband’s work and relocation to another city. Suddenly the man began praying about a “baby girl”…I thought, “Lord why does this keep coming up…we both know I’m not pregnant?”
Now for the good part…. Four days later my husband and I were talking and for some reason he started telling me we were going to adopt a baby…He kept saying it over and over. I shook my head, “I don’t think so… we don’t have that kind of money… maybe later down the road.”
The next day I was packing our house to get ready to move. I decided to take my mom’s friend some things I thought she could use. I intended to just quickly drop off the box… but on my way out the door, my friends daughter said, “Hey, do you remember Christina?” I said, “Yes…why?” She said, “Christina just sent me a text to ask you if you would adopt her baby…”
A thousand thoughts raced frantically through my mind for all of about 10 seconds. I remembered my trip to Costa Rica, the Lord saying I would foster His children, the man at the bible study, my husband the night before saying we were going to adopt.
I almost fell over. I called my husband at work. “Remember last night? You said we would adopt a baby.” I continued, “Well a young girl named Christina just asked us to adopt her baby.” He was shocked that everything happened so fast…within only hours of deciding to adopt.
Bottom line? Baby Shiloh was born exactly nine months after our trip to Costa Rica.
We never know what the Lord has planned for us. When you are walking with Him…He has surprises that will blow you away!
I pray that you will submit your life to the Lord. Then ask Him what He has planned for you! Be ready for an amazing ride…He wants the chance to show you His goodness and blow you away too!
Laundry Mom~Christina♥
