Was I Love When No One Else Would Show Up?

God began to speak to me about international adoption while I was reading Francis Chan's Crazy Love.  (A must read, by the way.  It's a life-changer.)  And while I was getting all excited about trusting God to do awesome things and using me in the process, He began to speak to me about some things that I've been missing.  I know He wants to move me way beyond where I've been with Him, but He's shown me that if I want to be used in the big things, I need to be faithful to the small things He's put in my path.  He showed me several areas where I've just been content to "drive by" people and situations, and have not been willing to really put myself out there and be the hands and feet of Jesus.  

I was in the car one day after school and heard this song by Sidewalk Prophets.  Turn on your speakers and listen.  The words are so powerful.  "Was I Love when no one else would show up?  Was I Jesus to the least of us?  Was my worship more than just a song?"  I've had to examine my motives, my words and actions (or lack thereof), and the way I see the people around me.  I need to see them with the eyes of Jesus and love like He does.

"I wanna live like that, and give it all I have, so that everything I say and do points to You!"

Things We are Praying For!

We are so grateful for our family and friends who are supporting us in this adventure with God, and who are praying with us.  Thank you so much for believing with us in a great big God, for Whom NOTHING is too hard!

• Pray that God would nudge the hearts and minds of those in Vietnam who are working on adoption reform.  Pray that they would see the urgency of completing this task well and quickly, for the sake of thousands of Vietnamese children in orphanages.
• Pray for those in the United States who make decisions about adoption agreements with other countries, that they would see the importance of returning to adoption relationship with Vietnam as soon as possible.
• Pray for God to work in the hearts of those who are caring for the children at the Que Huong Charity Center, that they would see the importance of real family nurturing for their children; that they would begin to consider allowing their children to be adopted out.
• Pray for the children in these orphanages . . . there are so many of them.  Many know nothing except for the institution they came to as babies, and have never known the love of a family or the hope of our Jesus.
• Pray that we would hear God's voice clearly guiding us.  We want to take steps of faith whenever and however He asks us to.  We want (we need!) to be right where He is . . . we don't want to run ahead of Him and try to do things in our own timing or our own way.  Neither do we want to find ourselves afraid of anything He asks, thus lagging a step behind.  
• PRAY THAT GOD WOULD BE GLORIFIED!  We so want to see Him do something that only He can do!  We want everyone who is watching and waiting and wondering to say in the end, "That could only have been God!"  He is in this, friends.  His heart is for the orphan.  (Psalm 68:5,6a; James 1:27)

Below is a video of the orphanage that we are praying for.  The orphanage that we would like to adopt from.   It is rather long, and I'm not sure why some of the footage is included, but this will give you an idea of the many, many children who need to love of a family.

I will go before you 

    and will level the mountains;

I will break down gates of bronze

    and cut through bars of iron.  

~ Isaiah 45:2

Fears, Doubts, and Confirmations!

There was a night a couple of weeks ago when Jim and I were on our knees before our Father, asking Him to bring about this thing which He had spoken to us and trusting Him to do so.  It was a powerful time, and we knew without a doubt that we had heard Him and that He was about to do something huge!  That night after we'd gone to bed, I just laid there, suddenly freaking out, and thinking "Noooo!  It's too hard!  It's too scary!  She doesn't even speak English!  I don't want to do this, God!"  Those thoughts just kept coming and God let me wrestle with that all that night and into the next morning.  And then He said to me, "OK.  You don't have to do this.  You can forget about it, and stop talking about it, and stop praying about it, and just keep doing your life as it's been, and go sit on the couch and watch baseball.  OR . . . you can say yes to something hard and scary, and watch Me do something awesome!"

 And so I said, "OK, God.  I chose that.  We want our lives to point to You."  And since that day my focus has remained firm.

Sometimes it's hard to see that this thing will ever happen.  That Vietnam will ever be open to adoption while we're still young enough to do it.  That this sweet little girl will ever be with us.  It seems more impossible every day, especially when we see nothing changing; emails to the orphanage aren't returned; we are turned down for an adoption home study, because no adoption agencies are currently accredited for Vietnam adoptions.  It's easy to get discouraged and think there's no way it will ever happen.  But God is bigger than all of that.  He's not wringing His hands or saying, "Oh dear.  What will I do now?"  He is true to His Word, and speaks confirmations to us all the time:

• Over the past couple of weeks, Jim and I have prayed about who to share our news with.  Some evenings I've been sitting on the couch with my laptop while he is sitting at the kitchen table working on his studies.  I would be asking God to give me wisdom about who to share with, and at the moment I thought of someone, Jim would say from the kitchen, "How about so-and-so?", and it would be the very same name.
• We want to take steps of faith:  Having a home study done.  Learning some Vietnamese.  Getting Joy a passport.  I was thinking about these things the other day, and worrying that it was foolish to do them so early, especially when we have seen nothing changing.  But then God brought to my mind a picture of Noah, building that ark for 120 years when it wasn't even raining!  Later I was telling Jim the things I had been worried about, and he said, "Noah, why are you building that ark?"  God had spoken the very same thing to both of us.
• We are so very thankful for friends and family who support us in following Jesus, and who pray with us and give us encouraging words.  One friend told me that she'd told her husband the day before getting our news that she knew we'd be adopting from Vietnam!  Another friend told us a story of friends who had adopted twin boys from Haiti, and in the photos of these boys were also pictures of their best friend, whom they'd had to leave behind.  Some time later, the family got word that there were several children in Haiti who needed to be placed for adoption quickly.  The family decided to adopt again, and when they go their new referral, guess who the child was?  The best friend of their boys.  :)  When I heard that, it just confirmed to me that God can bring this little girl to us.  He knows her name.  He knows right where she is.  He is able to move people and paperwork and adoption laws and mountains to bring her to our family.  (And how knows what else He has in mind?!)

Be encouraged, friends!  God is at work around us all the time!

"Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, "I am the LORD, the God of all mankind.  Is anything too hard for me?'"  ~ Jeremiah 32: 26.27

Another picture of "our" little girl, with a friend of Jim's.   :)

A New Adventure in Trusting a Great Big God!

Hello Friends,

We are about to share something with you that is crazy.  Impossible.  No way could we make it happen.  And yet, God is bigger than all of that!

As we look down through the course of our lives, we can see all kinds of spiritual markers that have our Father's hand all over them.  Things and events that at the time may have seemed small, but opened the doors for Him to work in absolutely HUGE ways in the days and years to come.  We are continually amazed  at this, especially when we see that He is planning things beyond anything we've ever expected.

This is one of those.

Jim is finishing up an Executive MBA program at the University of Denver.  (This is something he never thought he'd do!)  One of the segments of this program is an overseas trip to study culture and business.  Jim's cohort voted to take the Asian trip, which was not his first choice, but clearly where God wanted him to be.  While they were in Vietnam, in June 2012, they visited an orphanage.  Jim reports that immediately upon entering the playground, the children ran up to the 40-or-so visitors for hugs, piggy-back rides, and play.  The first child to run to my husband was this little sweetheart.

As soon as I saw this photo, I cried.  I told Jim that I would bring her home in a heartbeat if it were possible.  I went back to this picture many times over the next days.  When Jim came home, we talked about this little one.  She has most likely lived at this orphanage since she was a baby.  She doesn't know what a family is.  She has little hope of learning about Jesus.  The more we talked about this and prayed for her, the more God began to talk to us.  And one night last week, while we were on our knees before Him, we knew for sure.

So. . . here it is.  We feel that God is calling us to adopt from Vietnam.  We are even going as far as to trust Him that this particular little girl will become part of our family.  And who knows what else He has in mind!  

The reality?  

• Vietnam has not been open to adoptions from the United States since 2008.  Vietnam is in the process of reform in their adoption laws, and apparently are not yet up to U.S. standards.  
• The orphanage where this little girl lives does not adopt their children out.
• Even if Vietnam adoption is re-opened to the U.S., this is just one little girl among many thousands.  It would be virtually impossible to adopt "this one."
• We will have to pass Vietnam's specifications for adopting parents.  In some countries, we are already too old.
• This is going to cost many thousands of dollars.

The REALITY!!

• The King we serve is the Creator and Sustainer of the universe!  If He has a plan that isn't easy, or even seems impossible, He isn't sitting around wringing His hands about it.  HE IS GOD.  He is the healer of nations.  He can work in the hearts and minds of the people making decisions in both Vietnam and the United States.  And He can do it quickly.  Many are thinking that an agreement may not happen for years.  We're not content to just believe that.  Just the other day we read an article about Ireland resuming their adoption relationship.  We're trusting a great big God for the same thing for our country.
• God is able to work in the hearts of those who are caretakers of these children.  We are praying that they would realize the great gift these children could be given by being allowed real families and homes.
• If God wants a particular child to live in a particular place with a particular family, is that too big a task for Him?  Of course not.  He knows this little girl by name.  He knows the number of hairs on her head.  He sees her right where she is.  And if He wants her to be in a different place with different people, He can certainly do that.
• Same as the point before this, if God wants us to be the caretakers of a particular child, He can certainly do that, regardless of seemingly endless hurdles that seem impossible.  
• God owns the cattle on a thousand hills.  If He is able to do all of the above, worrying about money is the least of our concerns!

God has told us over and over the last few days that He is bigger than impossible!  We so want to see Him do something that only God could do!

 Look at the nations and watch—

   and be utterly amazed. 

For I am going to do something in your days

    that you would not believe,

    even if you were told.

~ Habakkuk 1:5 

Please believe with us, friends.  We covet your prayers and also your spiritual counsel.

~ Jim & Joy Altman and family

* * * * 

Below are a few pictures of the Que Huong Charity Center orphanage.  We feel that God has called us to help support them financially while waiting to see what else He does and what else He calls us to.  (James 1:27)

Bedroom area.

Cafeteria

Jim with the founder of the orphanage.  Although this was just a fun moment, we feel it was Providential that the photo was taken, so that she will remember him!

Play area.

Happy to see visitors.