Joan, "God is gracious"

Praying for Joan

Joan's Home

God is faithful!  In November when Suzanne and some other special people from Asbury where in Kabalaga.  They felt lead to pray that Joan's "deafness" be healed.  They went to her home which was a "mud hut" and prayed for this angel.  What a beautiful picture of hope!  The pictures of her village are a constant reminder to me that I don't really have bad days.  I really don't have much to complain about.  The name Joan in Hebrew means "God is gracious".  From the outside, the situation doesn't look like God is gracious.   I have to confess when we first started considering adopting her my greatest concern was her deafness.  After I looked at pictures of her home, God revealed my pride to me again and humbled my heart.  I told my children that I truly believe that Joan's deafness may be one way God has protected her.  People in her village are afraid of her.  They believe that she has "evil spirits" and she is cursed because she is deaf.  I'm going to choose to believe they don't know any better.   Many deaf women especially are abused and they never get education.  They are looked down on and many of them are used for manual labor.   Joan isn't cursed.  Healing for Joan may not be having her hearing physically restored.  I don't know how God is going to heal Joan but I know how God is healing me through getting to know her... One day at a time.  Aids was another concern we had about adopting Joan.  Thank the Lord she doesn't have aids.  We were so relieved she didn't have that horrible illness.  We notified Suzanne on a Friday that we were interested in adopting Joan.  Of course she was thrilled.  She said she would contact Joel at Rays of Hope School that Joan attends to find out if Joan's grandmother was interested in pursuing this.  Joan's grandmother had 2 questions.  1.  Would she ever get to see Joan again?  2.  What about Joan's little brother?  Todd and I felt like this question might be coming.  We talked about it but we hadn't prayed about him.  At this point, we didn't feel like we would be doing good to handle Joan, learning sign language, teaching her sign language, and possibly surgeries to correct her hearing.  We also were concerned about Laurel and Coleman.  The last thing we would want to do is make the situation so hard on everyone that our purpose, our calling to adopt Joan, may be defeated if we over extended ourselves and our family.  We told Suzanne to tell the grandmother that yes she would see Joan again and we would pray about taking "little brother" but we didn't want adopting Joan to be contingent upon taking both of them.  We even talked about maybe waiting a year and getting her settled and going back and getting him.  We waited it seems like forever to hear if she would consider our decision to let us adopt just Joan.  This decision tormented me because all I could think about was if Laurel and Coleman ever had to be separated it would break my heart.  I felt so sad but 2 more seemed crazy!  We are almost to the simple part of life.  We have 6 years until we are "empty-nesters".  One Sunday, my curiosity got the best of me and I called Suzanne to see if there was any news from Uganda.  She said the grandmother wanted to talk to her more about the adoption when she was there for Spring Break in March.  This wasn't bad news but it wasn't the news we were hoping to hear.  I had decided to give it all back to God and "be still and wait".  We had only told a few people at this point because there was no sense in getting everyone all "worked up" about this.  Also, we didn't want our decision to be influenced positively or negatively.  We left it all up to God.  We had said "yes we will".  It's amazing to me all of the little things Todd and I can't agree on but when it comes to the big "stuff", thank the Lord we agree. (most of the time)  On Tuesday, the thought of adopting Joan hadn't crossed my mind.  Around 2:30 Suzanne called and asked me if I wanted another baby girl.  That was a special moment for me.  God confirmed me as obedient.  Not because she said yes but because I knew I really gave it all to him.  I knew my knees were at the foot of the cross and I was humble.  Laurel came in from school and I told her.  She was so happy she almost cried.  I called Todd and he was happy, relieved and ready to get the show on the road.  I told Coleman and he couldn't believe it.  By Friday, we had a letter from an attorney in Uganda.  It was time to let the cat out of the bag.  What would people say?

God is faithful!
Amiee

"whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.  For even the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10: 43- 45