The fire (part 2)

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is NOT against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authourties, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand." Ephesians 6:10-13

The first post on this blog contains the miraculous story of how God so clearly showed us that it was time for us to adopt again. It's a beautiful story and full of direct answers and interventions from God. Many of you also know that when we adopted the first time, God also did the same direct intervention to show us we were to adopt and even from where. (For anyone who does not know the story, I will write it out if people ask.) These two times are the only times in our lives that God has so directly spoken to us concerning anything. Sure, in other ways we have "heard" Him speak, but NEVER as directly as when He wants us to adopt.

This tells me something about God.

Number 1-God LOVES adoption. Jesus tells us to care for the orphan and the widow. His heart breaks for them. Ours should, too.

Number 2-God is real and intimately involved in the lives of His people. And when we make ourselves available to Him, He WILL show you what He has for you.

As powerfully and directly as God has shown us His desire in our adoptions, Satan has also very powerfully and directly tried to stop us. *This fire is a direct result of our pursuit to obey what God has clearly shown us regarding adoption.*

You see, we don't believe the Bible to be a book of fairy tails leaned on by weak people in times of difficulty. We believe EVERY precious word of it. So when it says our battle is not against flesh and blood but of evil forces in the heavenly realms, we BELIEVE that. We've SEEN it to be true.

We are in a cosmic battle of good and evil all the time. Satan battling God, trying to win as many over to his side as possible. The road to God is life, the road to Satan is death. Satan doesn't want a child to join our family and experience life. He hates it. He'll do what He can to stop it. Hence the term Spiritual Warfare.

We had many attacks during our last adoption. I'll share the worst of the worst. We pursued our adoption with a vengance. Our application was done is record time. Once we realized that God was telling us to adopt, we did everything as quickly as possible. The next step for us was (before we could do anything else) attend the pre-adoptive class given by our adoptioin agency (Children's Home Society). It turns out they were all filled up and we had to wait 3 months to get in. Uggghhh, that was so frustrating to sit and do nothing.

We were to attend on a Thursday in August. That Monday, Blake began to feel ill, really ill. By Monday night we were in the Emergency Room with him at Children's Hospital. His symptoms were severe. They drew blood, took x-rays and examined him. We were there all night. Finally, I asked the dr. why he wanted to take x-rays of his chest. He took me out of the room and told me that Blake's blood levels were all messed up. His white count was extremely low and his red count was also effected. He told me they were very concerned that he had cancer, lymphoma, and that they were checking a chest x-ray looking for evidence of that.

They told us to follow up the next day with his pediatritian. We didn't tell Blake anything about the cancer possibility, he was so sick anyway and we really didn't know how to. But the dr. did. Well, you can imagine. Telling a 16 year old boy that it looks like he has cancer. They drew blood and the results were almost the same as the night before. We were to come back the next day, Wed. in the afternoon.

After that appointment, I really felt the Lord assuring me that this is one of those spiritual battles and that he was fine. We all prayed together for Blake. I called CHSFS to tell them about the situation and that we intended to be there but a little late. I called the drs office to see if there was any possibility we could get an early morning appointment so we could still make the pre-adoption class. We were confident he would be fine. The dr. agreed to come in middle of her hospital rounds to see us.

They drew blood and waited. She came in with the results, sat down and said, "You are a very lucky boy. Your numbers have doubled and are climbing!" It was determined that he had a virus and the fact that it attacked his white AND red count was "very rare." We praised the Lord, sent Blake home with my niece and sped off to our class and made it exactly on time!

Satan tried then and he failed.

I had the application for adoption on my desk and planned to fill it out over the weekend and submit it on Monday (tomorrow).

He once again tried by destroying our house but he cannot destroy our faith and that's why I said, "Make no mistake. We WILL be adopting as soon as we get back in our house."

Thank all of you for your prayers. We feel the support. Thank you for the offers of help. Our insurance company advanced us a check so we are able to begin to replace the items we need. We're getting there. Everyone now has underwear, socks, shirts, toiletries. Blaine still has only the jeans he left the house in. Katie has flip flops and we awoke to the ground covered in white again! So we have to do a lot every day.

Blaine will post pics today of the house. They speak for themselves. We went on Friday to see it. With the exception of the frame, it needs to be completely gutted, all 3 levels. Part of the roof must be rebuilt as you can see in the pics. It will take about 6 months to complete, maybe 8. We should be back by Christmastime.

Today is Palm Sunday. It's the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, a hero beloved by the people. And just one week later, they crucify Him. How quickly things change. I'm thankful that God doesn't change.

Blessings,
Laura