Keys, Walls, and a Coat of Paint

 This Post was an honor to write for a guest post today on Sara Hagerty's blog, Every Bitter Thing is Sweet...

 

Keys, Walls, and a Coat of Paint

The woman whose writing I get to share with you today has a true gift of encouragement. The words she’s shared with me, slid under the virtual fence as if we were neighbors, have nearly every time taken me back to Him. She’s got a big enough flock to not waste time on unnecessary words — what she says carries weight.

And, friends, this woman loves her man. The light in her children’s eyes, sent from Him, they clearly witness, first, under their roof. Often. There is beauty happening between their four walls and, here, Gillian lets us peek in.

(For the month of May and two weeks into June, I will be pressing pause on my online writing and this space will become a series of testimonies of what He births in the midst of delay, perplexity and pain. Author friends fromaround the country, who love words on a page and Him even more, will share, here, how they have seen Him make the bitter, sweet.)
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… “So take nothing for granted.  Stay awake in prayer.”


Years of listening to our Father’s heart, let us know it was time…  Time to pick up the tools of a builder and the weapons of a protector…


For the harvest field of adoption is also a battle ground.

As we prepared to go to Ethiopia, we believed we were at the end of a journey,  a completion of the mercy heart that God had built in our family of six for the lost lambs of His world…  OH, how we were to find, this was only the beginning of LEARNING how to build…

And did we EVER over- pack!!

We laughed as my six foot five inch husband, Richard, sat down on our massive roller suitcase to zip it up. Heart and mind OVERFLOWED with hope and promises  saved up from our times spent with God in adoring, listening prayer during the  year we waited for our babies.  We also bulged with bits of helpful tips from adoption blogs and orphan psychology books…innocent intentions…and some romanticism…
As our plane inclined out of our world and into another, thankful tears rolled down my face.  Awe filled my heart…. In that quiet moment, as the plane’s wrestle with gravity pulled me against my seat, my spirit lifted into adoring prayer. And, a familiar, Fatherly voice spoke in my heart’s ear over and over again…

Words I had never memorized…

Phrases which truly mystified me,

“Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.” (Isaiah 58:12)

Apparently I was not at the end of a journey but at the beginning of another…


Please continue.... on Sara's Blog at Every Bitter Thing is Sweet