Strength for the Journey

We have decided we are ready to pursue adoption, now that Trinity is 4 months old.  We feel ready for the challenge after what we were able to walk through with God's help during her hospitalization.  So, a couple of weeks ago, I printed out the application for the adoption agency.  Its the first step, of course.  Its not too long but it has a section for your testimony which is part of the reason I started the blog.  Not to mention the fact that we really felt like we needed to document the Lord's hand in our lives.

So we have been filling out the application, and praying over it daily.  Literally, it is on my prayer journal and I pray over the actual application.  Rummaging through an old purse I found this encouragement card:  Strength for the Journey--dont worry that you're not strong enough before you begin.  It is in the journey that God makes your strong.  "The Lord shall guide thee continually and satisfy your soul." Isaiah 58:11

So this has been my encouragement as we start this long, hard, journey.  I know the Lord will guide us every step of the way, and He will be our strength. 

Backup to last year, before we found out I was pregnant with Trinity.  We had opened an account for the adoption fund and had begun to save money.  We didnt save much, as you can imagine, after we found out I was pregnant!  But we had saved a little.  We had enough to pay our application fee and begin on the next step.  However, during the course of the year we had to "borrow" from that account for one reason or another.  Sad, but true.  So when we were filling out the application this week we were talking about when we might be able to afford to send it in since we had depleted that account.  Well lo, and behold, the Lord is already working and providing and the journey has barely begun.

Greg left to go to the furniture market, where he has to go twice a year.  He was honored to receive "salesman of the year" from the company he works for.  Last year the guy who won got a gun and Greg was excited to think he might get one too...but guess what he got????  A visa gift card...in the EXACT amount that we need to send in our application!  Isnt God amazing?!?!  I have heard people talk about how wonderful the adoption process is because you experience God's providence first hand, and there you go.  I truly feel in my heart that this is such a blessing from the Lord.  I can't wait to see what He has in store for the rest of the story...

“Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’
If you remove the yoke from your midst,
The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, 
 And if you give yourself to the hungry
And satisfy the desire of the afflicted,
Then your light will rise in darkness
And your gloom will become like midday. 
 “And the Lord will continually guide you,
And satisfy your desire in scorched places,
And give strength to your bones;
And you will be like a watered garden,
And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail."

Isaiah 58:9-11