Wednesday, April 10, 2013

God Has A Plan


Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to go to Africa and hold the orphans.  I was drawn to them.  I felt that they needed to be sung to and held and told that they were special sons and daughters of God.  It was always a part of "what I wanted to do when I grew up."  I decided that getting a nursing degree would be my key to make that happen. I pictured a humanitarian mission.  When I graduated from high school, I started  pre-nursing classes at Weber State University.  At that same time, I met and fell in love with my husband; we married and we felt like we needed to start a family.  I dropped out of college to be home with the kids, but with a determination to return and finish my degree some day.

This last fall, I decided the time was right to return to school and finish that degree.  Before registering for classes, I prayed about the decision.  Imagine how shocked I was when the answer I got was NO!  I was not to go back to school.  I was so heartbroken and plead with the Lord and told him how I wanted to help the children and the only way to be a part of this humanitarian project was to get this degree.  Still, the answer was NO.  After days of weeping and grieving over the answer, I softened my heart and told the Lord that if He didn't want me to be a nurse, please guide and direct me to know what to do instead.  The answer I got was "free up your time and serve."  I didn't know what this meant, but I was determined to be obedient.

I started helping out wherever I could with friends and people I went to church with.  I was serving.  In the meantime, a friend of mine introduced me to a website, reecesrainbow.org.  This website lists orphan children with special needs from all over the world.  My heart was stirred.  I would check on the children every day, cry for their plight and pray that they would be kept safe and that angels would surround them.  I thought there wasn't much I could do for them except to pray.  (After all, I already had 9 biological children and international adoption is VERY expensive.)  So everyday I would pray for these precious children.  I prayed families would find them and that they would get the care and love they deserved.

One day as I was viewing the newly listed children on the web site, I came across a young boy named Washington who stole my heart.  All the excuses of why I couldn't adopt seemed trite and trivial.  This precious African boy was mine and I would do whatever it took to adopt him.  God had a plan for me after all.  I would be going to Africa and holding the orphans, at least one of them!  And it didn't take a nursing degree to get there!  I understood what the Lord wanted me to do- "free up my time and serve."  Serve one of his precious children from across the world in Africa.  :)

3 comments:

  1. Hey Kim
    Great to see you got the blog up! Neat to hear more of your story.
    Praying for you as always!
    Angela

    ReplyDelete
  2. We (Washington's extended family) are excited for him to come too!! He seems so sweet and we love him already! :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am inspiring by your story. Praying for you. Angela, my daughter introduced me to your story.

    Joyce

    ReplyDelete