Chapter One - Planting Seeds

"Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. 

The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; 

were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare."

Psalm 40:5 

 In the upcoming weeks,

I will be chronicling our adoption journey here on Mathilda’s Garden. 

It is not going to be easy to put words to the wonders God has done.

I can’t tell you how many drafts I’ve deleted already. 

Yet, I want to shout from the mountain tops,

“Look what God can do!” 

Taking into consideration that there are no real mountains in Michigan,

I will shout it from this blog!

  

Adoption has always been a part of God’s plan for our life. We just didn’t know it. But as we look back on the journey, we can clearly see that God’s hand was leading us, long before we even realized it. It is hard to say specifically how or when, but somehow along the way, God planted the seed in our hearts and it has taken time for it to grow and blossom.

I guess you could say that my seed sprouted before Todd’s. In 2007, I read an article in Lifeline, the adoption magazine of Bethany Christian Services.  The article was an interview with Steven Curtis Chapman about his adoption ministry.  I cut out parts of the article and saved them in a journal.  The following quotes are the words of Steven Chapman that God used to "water the seed."

       
“He (God) delights in doing things that we say are impossible.  Ours is to have the faith to take that first step.  If you start that journey and it isn’t completed the way you thought it would, God is still in that journey and will provide for you.  I would encourage people to step forward and see what God wants to do in their lives.”

“A good friend who runs an orphanage in China says, the one thing to never say when we are talking about anything God is involved in is, ‘Can I afford it?’ Our father owns everything.  When God puts a desire in our hearts, He will find a way.”

After reading this, my heart began wondering if God was calling.

Adoption became a regular part of my prayers. 

I was not at all certain this was God’s plan.

Circumstances and good old practical sense said it was impossible.

But I told Him,

“I’m available.”

Stayed tuned for Chapter Two - The Unsettling

Thanks to Hanna for the beautiful Lake Michigan photos.