No Walking Needed/ The Joshua Factor

No need to walk across the room.

Seems like, these days, I only need to be in the room.

Our entire church is studying "Just Walk Across the Room" for 4 weeks. The culmination will be in October when instead of church proper on Sunday morning, we will go out and serve our community building relationships and showing the love of Christ with thought, word, and deed.

The small group study helps us think about getting outside our box. Visiting our neighbors. Seeing where they are at. How we can we help them, love them, serve them: a challenge to step out and be the hands and feet of Jesus.

What I wasn't prepared for was the Joshua factor.

I have been wondering for awhile when it might be our turn to give back. We have been at the parenting thing for a few years and 19 kids have crossed our threshold. The time may have arrived.

I did not realize that having Joshua would give us an opportunity to share our faith and our hope.

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect... 1Peter 3:15

I wrote for Phoebe's post:

Joshua was the only adoption that we "went after" in the words of the social worker. In fact, I always mocked those people who dreamily said when they saw the picture of a certain child, they just "knew" he/she was theirs. I thought that a bit sappy until......it happened to me. Having R (a foster child) for a year did pique my interest in the Asian culture as she is biracial Indonesian. I NEVER wanted to adopt a little girl from China when that craze went through years ago. It did not appeal to me in the least. Other than that, there is no particular reason we adopted Joshua other than the strong feeling of knowing that this adoption path was the one of least resistance.

How do I help people understand that my life is hard, very hard, but to turn my back on what God has laid out for me would be harder. We have more bad days than good. No glamour life here but the eternal rewards and the daily joy is worth it all. Hands down.

Every day God seems to give us another person to encourage, a chance to tell our story, to bridge the "I could never do that" gap.

For example:

Yesterday, we went to the big city for a pre-op appointment and a tour of the Children's Hospital. (* More on that tomorrow. I want to give you an update and specific prayer requests.) Afterwards, Bob headed back to work and I took the kids out to lunch. Yes, us and the seniors at the buffet. My kids LOVE buffets.
What a combo? Who do you suppose discovered this?
A happy boy!
Jello with fingers, those silly slippery little things.We met the sweetest girl working at the Hometown Buffet. Her name is Zulma. I heard her say "God Bless You" to an extremely cranky lady. This lady wasn't having a good day. She insulted her husband, was demanding, and just plain cranky. I am hoping it wasn't because we sat down next to them. Probably not, because they stayed quite awhile hanging out after they were done eating.
Anyway, this girl blessed me. She greeted every table with a smile and a hello. Sure, her English wasn't perfect but it didn't stop her from being a light to each and every person as she worked the room. And did she ever work hard. Done with that plate? Whisked away. Halfway through our meal, I realized she was doing her job as unto the Lord.
She admired the kids and before you know it, her story spilled out. Her husband was one of nine. Her father was one of nine. She, herself, wanted four kids. But she had a miscarriage last January so she and her husband are still waiting for the blessing of children. Zulma grew up in Columbia and has only been here for 3 years. She started in Minnesota but the cold was too much so she landed in Portland somehow and she likes it much better.

I asked if I could take her picture. She thought I wanted her to take a picture of all of us. I told her no, she had blessed us and I wanted HER picture.

I am grateful for the chance to share our story with the doctors, nurses, office managers, hospital staff, grocery store clerks, and waitresses: a message of acceptance and love.

But today I realized I have much to learn from people like Zulma.

Humble yourself, therefore, under God's mighty hand and he will lift you up in due time. 1 Peter 5:6

After such a sweet encounter, someone topped off their meal with quite a creation.
The master creator.Double sweetness!
I truly didn't see it coming.

My life is changed forever.