Thursday, January 24, 2008

Awakened Dreams

In the spring of 2002 the Lord started to rekindle our long-dormant dreams. Interestingly enough, the first step on our adoption journey had nothing to do with adoption.

We were thrilled when we had the opportunity to attend a Fernando Ortega concert in March '02. Right before the intermission, Fernando asked the audience to prayerfully consider supporting a child through Compassion International, then he sang a hauntingly beautiful lullaby called "If You Were Mine".....

(Turn off the background music at top right before starting the video.  This is actually a powerpoint presentation of our family that we created in 2006, after we adopted Jaden and felt the Lord's call to adopt a second child...but I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?)



If You Were Mine
by Fernando Ortega

When my heart is troubled and I am weighed down,
Then I like to think of how this lonesome world would be
If I could see your face, or hold you in my arms
If you were mine, if you were mine.

If you had a bad dream I would jump inside it,
And I would fight for you with all the strength that I could find.
I would lead you home by your tiny hand
If you were mine, if you were mine.

I would sing of love on the blackest night.
I would sing of God, and how His goodness fills our lives.
I would sing to you, ‘til the morning light
If you were mine, if you were mine.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"If You Were Mine" was written after Fernando and his wife experienced a failed adoption. It's poignant message touched our hearts in a way we wouldn't fully understand for several more years.

Several months later we were privileged to hear Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis speak at our state homeschool convention. The central theme to his messages that weekend was that one of the best ways to fulfill the Lord's call to reach the world was by building Godly families.

For years we had struggled with finding our place in God's kingdom...like most Christians, we had a burning desire to be used by the Lord, but He never opened any doors to ministry opportunities. But over the next few days as we meditated on Ken Ham's messages, we had what some might call a "light-bulb moment". We realized that if we never accomplished anything great in the eyes of the world, if we never became famous or amassed huge amounts of wealth, if we never reached thousands for the Lord through a "Billy Graham" type of ministry, if we would simply raise our children to be Godly, we would have fulfilled God's purpose for our lives. WoW!

After all those years of searching for the right ministry opportunity, the path the Lord was laying out before us suddenly became very clear, and we finally understood that He was leading us in a totally new and exciting direction--to provide a loving and Godly home to a child through adoption. We believed with all our hearts that this was His will for our family, and even though we didn't know specifically what or whom the Lord had planned for us, we were all very excited to begin our adoption journey!

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