Adoption Update: Our Plea

Mrs. Beaver:

In our last update, we asked our readers to pray for a court date before Thanksgiving. Thank you to those of you who prayed. We humbly acknowledge that was not God's will.

So, with all paper work completed and in Russia, we are on our knees again. We've been told by our agency contact that we will not get a court date in December, and that will mean that our tower of documentation will need to be updated just because of the change from 2012 to 2013. This is daunting, both in terms of added expense and, even more importantly, the time lost parenting the "Fab Four."

We've been told that it is impossible for us to get a court date yet this year. However, one of the first verses the Lord gave us to cling to as we began this particular adoption was Hebrews 11:1: "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

We're boldly asking the Creator of the Universe to orchestrate the details so that following our appearance in court we might be able to travel back to America with Lissie who has a lay-over in Moscow on her trip home close to Christmas.

So in faith, I record here a prayer written in my journal this afternoon. I realize it's long, but I'm attempting to obey Jesus when he told us to persist in our prayers like the widow nagging the unrighteous judge (Luke 18). This is the cry of my heart:

O, Lord, when we started this adoption You gave Hebrews 11:1 to us. I grab that verse now for all I'm worth and beg, plead, and beseech You for a court date in mid December. I even boldy ask my King to allow us to travel home with Lissie as she takes a brief respite from her service in Central Asia.

I know these requests are nothing more than the desires of my heart. I do not deserve these gifts. Yet I also know that you are my exceedingly kind Abba-Daddy, and I can come to my Father, the all-powerful King of the Universe, with any request. So I ask. I seek. I knock. (Matt. 7:8) I plead. I cry out to You for the absolutely impossible. Please grant us a mid-December court date. Please put Your majesty and omnipotence on display through our lives and our adoption. Oh, Abba-Daddy, I ask knowing you give fish, not snakes. You are the Giver of All Good Gifts.

Oh, my Abba-Daddy, You are the Father of the Fatherless. Please, please, I beseech You, set our four wonders free from their status as orphans. Liberate them! They have been fearfully and wonderfully made in your image (Psalm 139) and yet they're trapped in a place of hopelessness. Give them parents and siblings. Give them the opportunity to know You.

I bang on the gates of Heaven crying out for a miracle. People have told us it cannot be done. But with You, God, nothing will be impossible (Luke 1:37). Nothing! Oh, Abba-Daddy, all I want for Christmas is my four children. Please, God, do the impossible for us that we might give you that much more glory.

Jesus, You turned water into wine. That was impossible. You even gave the bride and groom the very best wine.You granted a miracle with Your special touch of love. Please do the same for us. Please grant us a mid-December court date. Please do far more abundantly beyond all we could ask or think (Ephesians 3:20). Please open a spot on the judge's docket. Please fill that opening with our case. We long to obey You, hallowed Father, by parenting the Fab Four. Those three brothers and their beautiful sister are already our children in our hearts. Please make them legally ours in mid-December. Please open doors that are now shut, as only You can. Please go before us. Please fight for us while we remain silent (Exodus 14:14). Jesus, for the sake of the glory of your name, we trust You for the impossible.

Lord, please prevent wasted time redoing adoption documents in January. Those precious weeks it would take could be used instead teaching our new kiddos English. Then we will be able to share the gospel with them. We long to teach them Jesus, and the sooner the better! Please, please, God, prevent further waiting. Nothing, nothing, nothing at all is impossible for You. I long to wrap my arms around my three new sons. This mama yearns to hold my newest "baby" girl who is already nearly too big for my lap. She was so scared and hesitant when we visited their orphanage early this fall. I long, in Your name, to become a safe haven for her.

God please grant us the impossible. We walk by faith, not by sight. We cry out to the God who hears. We confess our inability to make anything happen. You are all powerful. We are nothing. We are utterly dependant on You. Oh, Lord, please, please grant us a mid-December court date. All things are possible for You. Please Abba-Daddy, I come asking, seeking and knocking, just as Jesus instructed.

Oh, please, Great Sovereign Lord, work in this situation as we rest and hope in You (Matt. 11:28, Psalm 116:7). All of our hope is in You, and only You. You are the Creator of All. You created four children whom we met in their orphange two years ago, and You have ordained our family to be their family. They are our kiddos in our hearts already. Please, please, let the legal transfer take place in mid-December. We walk by faith, not by sight. Increase our faith, Great God! We believe. Help our unbelief! You are God. You are good. What You do is good. Slay any doubt and fill us with God-glorifying faith.

We deserve none of these requests. We rightly and justly deserve nothing but death, hell and eternal punishment. For we are sinners, and You, who are perfectly holy, cannot tolerate our sinfulness. And yet, You so loved the world that You sent Your only Song to be our substitute, to take our punishment. You adopted us through His sacrifice. And you tell Your adopted children that we may approach you as our Father. So we do. We repeatedly beseech You, like the widow who wouldn't leave the judge alone. We ask with great audacity that You might get great praise. Please arrange world history so that in our mini microcosm of eternity, we would be in a Russian court room in mid December, appearing before the very same judge who presided over our last adoption.

All that said, You are God and we are not. We bow before You. We fall on our faces before You ackowledging that You know best. So we say, not our will, but Your will be done.

Amen and very Amen, to the God who is worthy of all worship.