Jesus Said Yes! Part 1

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.

Jeremiah 33:3


“Jesus Said Yes! “

These are the words out of Esther’s mouth the day we told her that Jesus had answered her prayers.

Since being home with Hudson, Mike and I had continued to pray for God’s perfect plan for our family. We would find ourselves occasionally having conversations about the many waiting children around the world. Sometimes we would talk about China, sometimes Ethiopia, sometimes adding a child by birth. But honestly, four felt right. We knew we would always continue to pray, help, and advocate for the orphans around the world, but we did not know if that involved us having more children.

In most cases we would end the conversation with “We feel complete, we are done.” If we did adopt again we thought it would be way down the road, maybe an older child. Even though this is how we felt, we continued to pray for God’s plan to be made clear.

THEN… one day in early June our little Esther with tears in her eyes told us that we needed to go get her baby sister! “She is in China, her name is Bella, she is crying and we need to go get her!”

Wow this was a surprise to hear! This is nothing she had spoken of before and the name Bella???? Where did she get this name??? We thought this would quickly pass, we were wrong! Esther began to pray for Bella EVERY day by NAME!!! When I say every day I am not exaggerating! She faithfully prayed for “Bella”. Pretty soon Henry and Mae were joining in and beginning to add Bella to their daily prayers.

One day Mike looked at me and said “do you think maybe “Bella is an imaginary friend”? Esther hears that one, and quickly and adamantly informed us that “no she is my sister and she is in China!” To say this got our attention was an understatement!

Again we began to pray more, but honestly our hearts were not that open. Truthfully most days we both felt pretty overwhelmed with what we were already responsible for. Our days were filled with the busyness of life with four kids. The laundry is a feat in and of itself! We had just finished Hudson’s second surgery, and were kind of settling in to our life so to speak.

Slowly God began to soften our hearts, and we became more open to the idea of another child, but we both prayed and agreed that God would have to make it completely clear that this was the direction He was leading us.

It is now October of 2009 and Esther has been praying since June for her sister, daily. We have been praying, but have no clear answer. Mike asks one day don’t you think that the name “Bella” would be a good name for a little Ethiopian girl? I said “sure” I don’t really care where our little girl is from if God shows us that is what we are supposed to do. Mike felt the same way. We keep praying… little did we know we would soon have a very clear answer.

One afternoon during the last week of October, I had taken Esther and Hudson to the park. We had packed a lunch, and Esther began her prayer, “Jesus thank you for this food and please keep “Bella” safe. She opened her eyes, looked at me and told me she was going to pray for “Bella” every day until she came home! Then with a huge smile on her face she says “I am SOOOO EXCITED!!!” Honestly I did not know what to say, part of me loved seeing her child like faith, and part of me just wanted to say I don’t think there is a Bella; maybe you should stop praying she comes home, because I just don’t think that it is going to happen. We can pray for the children without mommy’s and daddies but enough about “Bella”. Just being honest here, it was wearing me down!

During this same time I was doing a bible study with a very dear friend that has also adopted from China. My friend and I understand each other and we had been praying for months together regarding God’s will for our families. We were on week seven in our study and there was a scripture that we studied which really spoke to my heart.

“We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” Ephesians 2:10

The author then says “God did not save us so we could look attractive on Sunday’s. He saved us and left us here to do-very specific work. He has a mission to accomplish for kingdom gain in every generation all planned in advance and perfectly timed. In His sovereignty, God has chosen to do His work through us. If we miss our ministry, we will miss our entire purpose in remaining here.” Wow this was a powerful reminder that I wanted and needed to be in the center of His plan.

My friend and I were on the phone reviewing this study when Mike came in and told me I had a call from another close friend. He said to call her as soon as possible. I finished up the study and my friend asked what I needed prayer for. I told her they were the biggies… are we supposed to adopt again and are we to continue to live here, or move back home???

She said she was getting off the phone and praying for our family right then.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
1 John5:14-15