The Changing of a Name

I honestly have been amazed at how strongly

some people have reacted when we share

that we are intending on changing the children's names

when they become legally ours.

So much reaction that I took it to prayer.

I certainly didn't want to "rob them of their identity" 

as some had suggested.

Many also claimed that it would cause confusion...

since they already knew their name.

But God showed me something completely unexpected.

HE made over 10 name changes in the Bible!

Abram to Abraham

Jacob to Israel

Sarai to Sarah

Saul to Paul

just to name a few...

Also several men of God (including Moses)

instigated a name change for another person.

Wow~

Why would God change names?

These were adults - who surely knew their names :o)

 What was He telling us?

What did this signify?

Through study and prayer

He began to show me the significance of these changes

and how through the name changes, 

God was expressing a new identity that He wanted them to embody.

So as I look forward to the family that He is bringing to us

and specifically the ones that He is planting in our family

to be forever ours

 We see it as a "shedding off" of what was

and a "taking up" of the promises of God 

that He has given to them for their lives.

"Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!"  2 Corinthians 5:17(AMP)

So -

while some may still disagree...

I am at complete peace as God rewrites our family

and directs us to rename the newest blessings!

^"For in Him we live and move and have our being; 

as even some of your [own] poets have said, For we are also His offspring."

Acts 17:28 (AMP)

 

Just Pinch Me!

We are beyond words around here.

And for me, well...

that just isn't the norm!

After hurdle upon hurdle

and delay upon delay

and rescheduling

and sitting and waiting...

We FINALLY had the court day

that we have been waiting for.

(well, not the official last one...) 

Last Monday we were asked to go to court

(after showing up the week before to find out the jail

had messed up and not transferred the father).

We were told that the father was prepared to surrender 

his rights to the girls!

We sat for HOURS
(ironically God used those hours to teach me
as the grandmother who had been so hurtful and cruel
sat with us :o/ 
and talked endlessly)

The time finally came
and we were ushered into the courtroom
to hear those words that we have been longing for.

But as I sat, He also opened my eyes
in a whole new way.

I am grateful (?) somehow for this whole 
long, miserable, heart-wrenching process.

Loving Father - always using our situations to grow us...
and grow our faith.

 
The following day was the trial to sever the mother's parental rights
(she is still a fugitive and never served her sentence)
and yes, 
God used this opportunity again to teach us how to wait...
IN HIM.

But wait we did - 
and we finally got THAT call.

The girls are legally free!

Mighty God.
Making a way.
Protecting His children.

We are in awe of this privilege!

So dear friends - 
we are officially on our first 

ADOPTION JOURNEY!...

and prayerfully by mid-June
our first little princess will be ours forever!

To Him be the glory and honor and praise!