It doesn't end at Gotcha Day

What the smoke?!?

*Disclaimer: In this post and all other adoption related posts, please know that I do not claim to be an expert. I am merely expressing my thoughts as I am learning and growing. So be kind to this clueless girl. *

As I have been learning about this crazy adoption process, one term that was new to me was "Gotcha Day". If you are also unfamiliar with this term, my good friend Wikipedia describes it as "a day celebrated by American families of adopted children to recognize the day they received the child." And if you hop on Youtube, you will find plenty of videos commemorating this glorious day, just as you would the birth of a biological child. (warning: if you do view these videos, please do so with Kleenex box in hand.) There is much build up and anticipation leading up to this big day. It's when all of the labor of paperwork, fundraising, traveling, waiting, reading, etc. finally result in the addition of a precious child to your family.

And while this is rightly a day to be celebrated, it is not the pinnacle of the adoption process, it is just the beginning of a new family life! Once the child has joined your family, the journey gets real (or so I hear). The hard/wonderful healing process begins as the family grows together.

Now maybe this is a stretch, but as I was thinking about Gotcha Day, I couldn't help but compare it to the day that God adopted me into His family. Sometimes Christians say things like "Share your testimony". I always thought this meant that you tell about how you came to know God and the moment that you became a Christian, since that is what most people will share when asked this question.

But my testimony is so much more that just my Gotcha Day. It is the journey that God has been leading me on my whole entire life. From the moment that He created me, He has been weaving me into His story and continues to make Himself known to me. The Bible says that even the angels in heaven were rejoicing when it was my Gotcha Day and I joined God's family. But after that great day, it just gets better and better (with plenty of ups and downs of course) as God does the hard/wonderful healing process in my heart.

So I will celebrate Gotcha Days wholeheartedly, both physical and spiritual. Preferably with cake and ice cream and thanksgiving to the God who just keeps loving me.

For His Glory

If you have been in Christian circles for any length of time, you have probably heard that the purpose of our lives is to "glorify God". The Bible dictionary defines this as "the giving of glory to God through acts of praise and obedience. Believers are to glorify God in their lives, as Jesus Christ glorified him in his life." And I agree. Yes. And Amen!

However, this has always been a rather fuzzy concept for me to grasp. How do I do this "glorifying" thing? I'm no seminary trained preacher here, so I'm not going to attempt to explain this, but God has been showing me lately what glorifying Him in my little life is all about.

To bring glory to God, I assumed I should do some great and awesome things with my life. Things that would make a big impact on the world around me. Then God will be pleased and glorified, right? Um, wrong. Once again I need to re-take the class I keep getting an "F" in called "It's Not About Me".

God doesn't need me to DO anything to glorify Himself. He is all perfect, all lovely, all right and true and good. So if He is able to reveal Himself for who is truly is, then those who see Him can't help but praise and glorify Him. This means that my job is to get out of the way and let Him reveal Himself. Meaning I need to quit trying to "do good things" for God, because then the focus is on me and my good things. Instead, I need to step back and look at what He is already doing in my life and praise Him for it!

2 Samuel 7 sums this up just perfectly. King David wants to build a house for God, but God tells David that He will build a house for him instead. Then God reminds him of all the great things He has done for David throughout his life. David is humbled and responds with a whole lot of thanksgiving and glorifying God. 

And if none of that made any sense, here is the bottom line:

God isn't glorified by what we do for Him, but by what He does for us. 

This big old sermon is all to explain the reason for our "For His Glory" page on the blog. We want everyone to see just how amazing our God is, so we will be posting prayer requests and how God answers those requests. We would love to have you pray along with us on this journey! I can't wait to see more and more of Him as He works in our lives!

Thank you Behnkes!

Have you ever felt so humbled and blessed that you just want to cry? I'm talking about a good, happy cry, not the kind of sobbing that come while watching "Titanic" or "Armageddon". (Oh, Leo, you get me every time.) Anyway, thanks to the Behnke family, I felt that way last week. These sweet friends have an amazing story of how God put their family together through adoption. You can check it out on their blog here. Their adoption was finalized this summer, and they had an adoption ceremony/celebration to commemorate that event. Yay! We were so happy to celebrate with them!

Go Team Behnke!

Now here's what brought me to tears. They asked that in lieu of gifts or money for their kids, that friends and family donate instead to our adoption fund, to help bring our child home from Ethiopia. Whoa. Their selflessness and generosity was just overwhelming. I mean, who does that?? (-: We are so blessed to know this awesome family and can't thank them enough for their kindness and for their friends and family who chose to give. God is good.

Every party needs a bouncy house, am I right?

This girl loved every minute of it

So, from the bottom of our hearts, THANK YOU, Behnke family of 5! We pray that our great God continues to bless your family as you have blessed ours!