If you have visited here before, you can probably see that I have changed the name of the blog again. I started blogging at 4URuthie to tell the story of our journey to adopt our 1st daughter. I changed it to Mountains for Maggie when we were praying for God to move mountains on behalf of our 2nd daughter. Well now it is no longer just Ruthie’s or Maggie’s stories. It is now our family's story, and the stories of those we share life with, as we Conquer Mountains together. Both ConqueringMountains.net and 4URuthie.blogspot will lead here.

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I am a pastor's wife, mother of 4 kids (2 adopted and 3 with special needs), physical therapist, and photography junky. This is where it all comes together for me. Feel free to join along as I process life out loud.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

If I Lived In Bible Times

I think if I lived in Bible times, I would have been one of those people that Jesus shook his finger at.  You know like someone He would have said, "O, ye of little faith" or "Get away from me Satan" to.   I have seen God's hand move over and over and over and yet I still fret.  I doubt and I fear.  I have what ifs when it comes to getting Maggie that include words like "mistake" and "death" and "money."  I am just keeping it honest here, people.  I would have been one of those shake His finger at Bible people.

At times like this, I hear the song verse in my head, "Here I raise my Ebenezer.  Hither by Thy help I come."  It comes from this passage in the Bible,

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and named it Ebenezer; for he said, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel; the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The towns that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites. (1 Samuel 7:12-14 NRSV)

An Ebenezer is a reminder of God's help and presence.  It represents those times when we have seen God move.

The Hendersons are praying for some big things this week for our foster child and for Maggie.  Will you help me by sharing your Ebenezers either in the comment section of the blog or in the comment section of Facebook?  As I pray for God to move and I fight the battle to doubt, I would love to read about the times that God has shown Himself in your life.

1 comment:

Bill and Toni said...

Since you know our Faith from the mission trip on which you met and fell in love with your Maggie Mei, here are the mountains He moved to get her home (Benton Ebenezers):
- I was to be laid off from my job of 19 years right after the mission trip on which I met and fell in love with our Faith.
- It took 6 full months to get another job. I accepted the job on Feb 2, hung up the phone, and immediately filled out the AW application on the computer.
- My husband hadn’t met her and wasn’t all gaga-in-love with her like I was.
- He said, “She’s deaf. Do you know sign language?”
- He said, “She’s 10 years old. Do you know how close puberty is?”
- He said, “Ok, if God drops her in our lap then I’ll know it’s from Him and we’ll do it.”
- It was nigh unto impossible to find a child's dossier once back in the US back then – probably why my husband thought it safe to say the above – haha.
- I scoured and scoured different agencies looking for her (I had her name, dob, and orphanage), and still hadn’t found her after 2-3 months, and we needed to tell the SW what age range we hoped to be qualified for. We gave up and told her 0-4 years. But God didn’t give up.
- After 4 months, someone I truly believe to be an angel found her and emailed me. I immediately contacted that agency and they said, “Yes, it’s her, and she’s just been chosen by another family.”
- Valley. Then regroup, and give that agency my contact info in case (or knowing that) the Mom would want all the info/pictures that I had of her. She and I become “BFFs” immediately and she even asked me to come to the airport (in Michigan!) to welcome her home… thought it would be fine for Faith to visit us for a week during summers, etc.
- After a month or so, she emails saying her husband lost his job and would we adopt her? Gulp. Let me discuss it with my husband. Very next day, she emails again saying all is well and they’re moving forward. No I’m sorry for the rollercoaster, no thanks for considering it, nothin’. Valley.
- Our paperchase took SEVEN months this time, but we finally finished it up in Sept. We had JUST submitted it with AW when this other Mom emailed me again saying his job was completely gone and they absolutely could not adopt her. Could we? Gulp. Are you sure? Isn’t there something you could try? Are you sure? And btw, are you sure?
- When we submitted our dossier to AW, I had complained loudly about something that probably didn’t make them like me very much. And now I had to go to them hat-in-hand and ask them to let us switch agencies with the dossier we’d just submitted to China. They did so very graciously and even refunded all of our mid-payment.
- We switched agencies and our LOI went to China on Oct 10. Our TA came in Jan, but it came to AW instead of the other agency. We were in limbo between agencies and finally ended up traveling with AW.
- We got the TA on a Tuesday and traveled that Thursday! And drum roll please… we got home JUST BEFORE Chinese New Year!!! That’s how big our God is!! And that’s how big YOUR God is too!!

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