Saturday, June 19, 2010

The Father's Heart

Over the past few months as the excitement and anticipation continues to build as I wait for Abigail's arrival I can't help but think about the many children on this earth who do not have a mother or father. For many years now I have had a desire to work with orphans and have thought about adoption. It seems as time goes on that the Lord continues to increase this desire in me. I know orphans are on the Father's heart as well. Psalm 63:5 describes Him as..."A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in His holy habitation." I have a desire to have many children, but I don't know exactly what that will look like. Perhaps not all of my children will be carried in my womb. I imagine some of Samuel's siblings will become a part of our family through adoption.

"Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted from the world." James 1:27

The orphans and the widows have such a special place in God's heart, yet they are easily forgotten by the world. But He has not forgotten them. He promises to never leave them nor forsake them. He desires that each child would experience His love through relationship. I don't know when it will happen, but I do believe the Lord will bless us with the opportunity to adopt someday. And what a blessing it will be: To love a child that is easily forgotten by the world but is loved and cherished by God.

A couple days after I began to write this post we considered a different kind of adoption. On Saturday we went to the Humane Society to look at the dogs they have. One in particular stood out to us. His name is Toby and he's a 2 year old lab mix. He is obedient and submissive. One of his previous owners taught him how to sit and lay down in German, but he also knows these commands in English. To make a long story short we adopted him on Monday and have been falling in love with him ever since! He is such a great dog and is becoming more affectionate everyday. He hasn't had any accidents in the house and is very low maintenance. With dog owners on either side of us, it's nice that he doesn't bark at other dogs. He loves to play catch and tug-a-war and Samuel loves to play with him. Samuel often says, "I like my new dog." We feel very blessed by what a wonderful match Toby is for our family. We looked up the meaning of Toby and it means: God is good! His name will ring true forever! God is so good!



Toby

Samuel having fun with our neighbor's grandkids

We took Samuel bowling for the 1st time on our anniversary




1 comment:

Lawrence Chang said...

Are you hiding a bowling ball under your shirt there too? Hehehe. Amen on the adoption idea, that is very much in God's heart and He has been speaking to me about it too! Take care Jess and Cody!