An event to tell our stories

My church, Grace Bible Church, is having a women's event this Friday evening, March 25th, called "Something to Say."  It sounds like a blast but I have the small problem of being in Korea so I won't be making it.  


Dinner will be served and the attendees will get to hear the amazing stories of Erin Cole and Renee Davis Meyer, these stories will move you and inspire you and just really refresh your walk with God.


 Then they're going to have break out sessions to learn how to tell your story and how to affectively learn other's stories.  And after that if your young and don't go to bed at 9pm, you can stay and hang out with amazing women and make journals.  


So if you want to sign up head over to Grace Bible's website and click on "register for this event."  It's open to all women, college aged and up.


They asked people to submit a story for a booklet they're going to be handing out to everyone, below is my story of grace.


I was going to tell you a different story, a story that sat unfinished for the past two weeks, I intended to finish it today and then, today, of all days, I got the phone call I've been waiting for.  The phone call to tell me that our daughter Chloe is ready to come home and we can fly to Korea to get her.

And now it is impossible for me to tell you any other story, because today the only story I know is the story of Chloe, which is the story of Jack and the story of Kylynn and the story of us.  The story of being a mother.  Who has walked such different paths to motherhood, a story of being on this path for so long, that we all have a hard time remembering not everyone does it this way.  Just this morning we passed the hospital where Kylynn was born and she told Jack that was where mommy came to get her after she was born, she does not understand the concept of giving birth, she only understands adoption.

And there it is, if God uses me for nothing else in my life, I will be content, he has used me to raise a little girl who, though I carried her for nine months, labored with her for 28 hours until they had to take her from my body, only understands adoption.  It is my story, it is my legacy, it is who I am.  A mother.  A mother of two children with a third one I will have my arms around come week end.  A mother who understands hurt and joy that I never dreamed I would experience, a mother who's seen how ugly this world can be, and how completely it contrasts to the beautiful plan he has for me.

This is what adoption has taught me, God has something he wants each of our lives for that is bigger than ourselves.  Something he wants us to say yes to that we cannot do on our own.  He chooses whatever scares us the most, the thing we instinctively say "no way" to, that thing we can't possibly do alone, so that, in the end having lost the ability to rely on self we turn to him and the world looks in and sees glory, his big beautiful glory.

Adoption taught me that we can say yes to the impossible, to the "no ways", because all he asks of us is our yes, the rest falls to him.  When we say yes and walk through that door he's placed in our path, the love and joy and peace comes like a river, and it can only be experienced in handing over our dreams to Him.   When you trade in your treasures for a yoke, your rights for a master, then you know: this is what it is to be rich, this is what it is to be free.

Adoption is all I know these days, it is my story.  I took all the dreams I had for my life, my marriage,  my family, and I traded them in for His.  He has held my hand every step of the way, he has never once let me down, never once asked me to do anything on my own.  He asks me daily to hand over the latest piece of junk I've picked up and begun to treasure, daily to come and follow Him, daily to remember I am His and this is his story to tell.