• Faith, Works & Love

    ByKristin faith, Guatemala, life, quotes, Soli Deo Gloria, Three Word Wednesday

    โ€œThe Bible constantly elevated love over knowledge, mercy over sacrifice. Knowledge is a tricky bedfellow, because it can sometimes shield us from the gospel. Doctrine is tidier terrain than flesh and blood. โ€ฆ Could the highest level of โ€˜right theologyโ€™ involve loving God and people like Jesus suggested?โ€

    {Jen Hatmaker in โ€œFor The Loveโ€}

    We can give our money and time to so many causes. Those refugees in Syria need help. There are orphans all over the world. Children need sponsored and adopted and fostered and mentored. Wells need to be funded and built. Third-world villages need medical care and access to education. Single moms could benefit from sustainable solutions to their problems. Our neighbors need to be invited in so they can meet Jesus.

    We spend so much time acquiring knowledge, waiting for circumstances to be perfectly tidy before we actually do something with what we know. Learning is important. Understanding Godโ€™s ways is paramount. But sitting around becoming smarter isnโ€™t worth much if we arenโ€™t out there loving and serving. {Tweet that.}

    James reminds us faith without works is dead. Those works don’t save us, but they may save someone else. Those works don’t determine our identity in God’s kingdom, but they can grow God’s kingdom.

    I can do good work in Jesus’ name, but I can’t do all the good work. And neither can you.

    Facebook is full of good causes. Our friends all promote whatever it is that moves their souls. Hunger. Homelessness. Orphan care. Adoption. Medical aid. Sustainable business opportunities. Life skills. Short-term missions. Long-term missions.

    Every single one of those things and so many other causes are important. And we should tell people about them. But they aren’t all going to be my things. And my things aren’t necessarily going to be yours things.

    But when I do my things and you do your things, when we come together with each other, when we open our doors and give our resources, then our small things add up to big things. We make ripples and bring light. We do good works not to save us but to let them see God wants to save them. {Tweet that.}

    And weโ€™re going to learn more about God and ourselves in the process, anyway.

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    I’m linking up with the weekly Soli Deo Gloria Sisterhood Gathering. 

    Want more insights? “Peace in the Process: How Adoption Built My Faith & My Family” is available on Amazon. Like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, peek into my life on Instagram, follow 152 Insights at Bloglovin’, or subscribe to receive “Insights in Your Inbox.”

  • Opening up about open adoption

    ByKristin adoption, faith, Rachel, Soli Deo Gloria

    Adoption always reminds me how God is in the details. Like our two other adoptions, Iโ€™ve seen it as we prepared for Rachel to be born since meeting birth mom Stacy in May. And I saw it on Sept. 19 โ€“ when our family became five. And not just because we wore matching shirts.

    My favorite nurse from Benโ€™s birth in 2009 was there. She took my all-time favorite hospital photo then and almost six years later remembered our story. We chatted throughout the day. She celebrated adoption while being sensitive to the delicate balance of grief and joy.

    Stacy is a private person so instead of being right by her bedside, we were just outside the labor and delivery room door. We could hear the last moments of delivery, when our girl entered the world. The birth dad stepped out to hug us and then we were invited in to meet Rachel. I touched her and photographed her while the pediatrician examined her and the nurse weighed her.

    Then that favorite delivery nurse of mine handed me Rachel wrapped like a burrito. And I handed her my iPhone with the camera ready to go. She snapped pictures of Greg and I meeting Rachel. And then she kept snapping pictures as I handed Rachel to Stacy to hold and then as the four of us gathered around a baby girl we all loved.

    We ended up spending about 90 minutes with Stacy after Rachelโ€™s birth. We took turns holding her and chatted about our other kids โ€“ my two who became part of our family through other adoption processes in 2007 and 2009 and her two who arenโ€™t yet 2 and 3 years old. These moments were open adoption at its finest.

    Iโ€™ll also remember those moments โ€“ and theyโ€™re part of the story Iโ€™m excited to share with Rachel one day. I even have pictures to show her.

    {Please notice Stacyโ€™s hand on the left of the picture above. I have others with all four of us โ€“  adoptive parents and birth parents side by side โ€“ and some of Stacy holding Rachel that are beautiful additions to the baby book and our familyโ€™s story.}

    We visited with Stacy later that evening as she recovered in another room and then again the next day when we met with our attorney and social worker before we went our separate ways.

    I know open adoption seems scary and awkward, but when itโ€™s the situation God designed the ways of this world donโ€™t apply. Having been involved in three adoption processes, I know each relationship and scenario looks different. Regardless, being able to know my childrenโ€™s birth moms is a unique and valued part of their stories.

    Likewise, each adoption is different. Adoption is born of heartache, and sometimes that means knowing birth parents isnโ€™t possible. Other times, an open adoption isnโ€™t desirable for perfectly understandable reasons. Open adoption is just what our family knows, but even then other families may have other degrees of openness. Adoption is never a one-size-fits-all experience.

    Stacy and I may have gone to different homes Sunday afternoon, but our lives are forever intertwined. Iโ€™ll send pictures and there may be visits. Iโ€™m not entirely sure what our relationship will look like from here, but Stacy will forever be part of our familyโ€™s story.

    _____________________

    I’m linking up with the lovely Soli Deo Gloria Sisterhood Gathering. 

    Want more insights? “Peace in the Process: How Adoption Built My Faith & My Family” is available on Amazon. Like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, peek into my life on Instagram, follow 152 Insights at Bloglovin’, or subscribe to receive “Insights in Your Inbox.”

  • Three Word Wednesday :: God is detailed

    ByKristin adoption, ebook, faith, quotes, Soli Deo Gloria, Three Word Wednesday, Works For Me Wednesday

    Looking back on what God has done in my life is always good for my soul. Lately, I’ve had lots of conversations with other women in the midst of their own adoption processes. Some are there for the first time, others have been there before. Regardless, I know how God works in the hearts of mommas preparing to open their homes to babies in this way.

    A writer friend of mine recently posted on Facebook Psalm 116:7 :: “Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.” She also talked about how this verse is where God had brought her after a long season of miscarriages and the more recent birth of her third child. 

     I get it. I haven’t had miscarriages, but I know the heartache of not understanding God’s plan to grow my family. I know how waiting is hard. But I’ve learned God is faithful and hears the desires of our hearts. In his time, we get to understand more of the plan.

     With that in mind, I thought I’d share an excerpt from my ebook, “Peace in the Process.” Honestly, I just didn’t have many new words for #ThreeWordWednesday and I needed this reminder myself. I hope it encourages you, whether or not you’re in the midst of adoption. 

    _____________________

    At the time we were preparing for our second adoption, I studied โ€œA Womanโ€™s Heartโ€ by Beth Moore with some ladies at church, learning about the Israelitesโ€™ experience building the Tabernacle and drawing parallels to the ways God dwells in his believers. God wanted the earthly Tabernacle to be a replica of a heavenly plan, so much so he instructed the Israelites how to build things, where to put them, and how to decorate them. Yes, our God is someone who appreciates and notices details. {Tweet that.}

    Even knowing what God had done for us through Cateโ€™s adoption, I clung to Beth Mooreโ€™s words:

    โ€œGod is detailed. He is not a God of generalities. He is a God of individuality. Do not let Satan convince you that God is not actively involved in the intricate design of your life. God has not missed a single stitch or left a stone unturned on your behalf; furthermore, His activity in the details of your life most often displays His glory and beauty.โ€

    The same God builds families. He has different ways of doing so, but Heโ€™s the master planner of them all. And God has been in the business of making families for many generations. Beth Moore commented in one of the Bible study videos that every time God makes childlessness an issue in the Bible as he did with Elizabeth, Hannah and Sarah, he is preparing his people for a miracle.

    Every time.

    Pregnancy comes easily to so many people โ€“ some of whom take the life inside of them for granted. But Beth Moore gave me new perspective on this: This thing that comes so naturally to some came supernaturally to Greg and me. I was chosen to become a mom this way and in the process witnessed Godโ€™s glory in a unique way.

    Like Elizabeth said in Luke 1:25, โ€œThe Lord has done this for me.โ€ I wonder how I will see Godโ€™s glory the next time.

    _____________________

       

    An InLinkz Link-up
       
    I’m linking up this post with Works for Me Wednesday because looking back on what God has done in my life definitely works for me! Kayse Pratt is hosting WFMW for Mary Carver. They’re two of my favorite bloggers on the whole internet, so go meet them, if you haven’t already. And then later I linked up with Soli Deo Gloria Sisterhood, one of my other favorite places on the internet. 

    Want more insights? “Peace in the Process: How Adoption Built My Faith & My Family” is available on Amazon. Like me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, peek into my life on Instagram, follow 152 Insights at Bloglovin’, or subscribe to receive “Insights in Your Inbox.”