Paved Highways

I am in tears this morning.  I can't help it.  The storm in my heart has been brewing for days and this morning - the floodgates have opened up.  I have so much on my heart. 

Do you remember this sweet baby?

This is Tori.  Right now the Burmans are in Aaron's former country.  They are in process to adopt Tori (Reagan) and Anastatia (Carrington).  Their blog is private to protect their adoption process and I need to be careful in my words.   They need prayer.  This morning the Burman's met Carrington.  A precious 13 pound - three year old.  Praise the Lord.  She's soon going home! 

Tori is another story.  They will not get to meet Tori until next week but there is a mountain before them. 

In Aaron's former country, though a child may be available for adoption, unless the director agrees, that child languishes in the system for life.  At Aaron's former institute there are 110 boys.  Only TWO are listed.  Only two have been determined to be adoptable.  One has a family coming (Brady) and one sits - playing with dirty strings (Heath).  I can't write that without breaking down.  I know that there are many more at that institute who are eligible, but in the director's eyes - they are not deemed adoptable.  They become Lost Boys and Lost Girls. 

Tori needs prayer.  Hearts need to be changed.  The Burman's have seen many mountains fall in the last few months.  They committed to these two girls at the end of October and it is only January and amazingly, they spent this morning holding one of them in their arms.  That is Major.  Very rarely does an adoption move that quickly.  Their paperwork moved through the system miraculously and they are there.   In country.  It takes my breath away.  But they still face a formidable mountain.  THEY ARE THE FIRST RR FAMILY TRYING TO ADOPT FROM TORI'S INSTITUTE.   The first.  They are doing what we did with Aaron.  Forging a path in the wilderness.  So much is riding on this process.  So much.  Lost Girls and Lost Boys will remain Lost if the doors close.  

I don't want to stop the tears that are flowing down my face as I write this.  Tori - Kirill - Eva - Baby J.  So many more.  Children who are stuck.  Locked away by those who consider them unadoptable, irredeemable.  Yet there are families who are willing and ready to take these little ones into their homes.  Parents who already call them their sons and daughters.  God has raised up His church to hear the cries of these helpless babes.   More need to rise up.  There are many many many more babes over there.  Little ones who will be LOST soon if they are not snatched up.  And unless directors and judges agree - Tori and Kirill and Eva and Baby J and the other children in those regions and in those institutes will go down with their ship. 

This morning I am weeping.  I am also praying.  The tears are good and right. We need to weep at injustice.  We need our hearts to be broken by the things that break God's heart.   We need to cry before the Lord for more families to rise up and heed His call to rescue the captive - to cross the ocean for three year olds who weigh 13 pounds.  And we need to cry with all our being for the Lord to not only make pathways in the wilderness so that Tori and Kirill and Eva and Baby J will be carried out to safety, but to replace those paths with paved highways so that other families who step out in faith - will have ease of travel as they rescue the forsaken.

   

Baby J                        Eva                                      Kirill

To the Burmans, the Hooks, the Moreno's, the Davis families... and to all the other families who are facing mountains that just seem too big -

I give you Isaiah 49 this morning.  Words of Hope.  Words of Life.  Words that were written thousands of years ago but still have deep meaning for us today.  We serve a living and loving God.
   He called you - He will carry you through.

Isaiah 49

Listen to me, you islands;

hear this, you distant nations:

Before I was born the LORD called me;

from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.

He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,

in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me into a polished arrow
and concealed me in his quiver.

He said to me, “You are my servant,

Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”

But I said, “I have labored in vain;

I have spent my strength for nothing at all.

Yet what is due me is in the LORD’s hand,

and my reward is with my God.”

And now the LORD says—

he who formed me in the womb to be his servant

to bring Jacob back to him

and gather Israel to himself,

for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD

and my God has been my strength—

he says:

“It is too small a thing for you to be my servant

to restore the tribes of Jacob

and bring back those of Israel I have kept.

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,

that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”

This is what the LORD says—

the Redeemer and Holy One of Israel—

to him who was despised and abhorred by the nation,

to the servant of rulers:

“Kings will see you and stand up,

princes will see and bow down,

because of the LORD, who is faithful,

the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.”

This is what the LORD says:

“In the time of my favor I will answer you,

and in the day of salvation I will help you;

I will keep you and will make you

to be a covenant for the people,

to restore the land

and to reassign its desolate inheritances,

to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’

and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’

“They will feed beside the roads

and find pasture on every barren hill.

They will neither hunger nor thirst,

nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them.

He who has compassion on them will guide them

and lead them beside springs of water.

I will turn all my mountains into roads,

and my highways will be raised up.

See, they will come from afar—

some from the north, some from the west,

some from the region of Aswan.”

Shout for joy, you heavens;

rejoice, you earth;

burst into song, you mountains!

For the LORD comforts his people

and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me,

the Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast

and have no compassion on the child she has borne?

Though she may forget,

I will not forget you!

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are ever before me.

Your children hasten back,

and those who laid you waste depart from you.

Lift up your eyes and look around;

all your children gather and come to you.

As surely as I live,” declares the LORD,

“you will wear them all as ornaments;

you will put them on, like a bride.

“Though you were ruined and made desolate

and your land laid waste,

now you will be too small for your people,

and those who devoured you will be far away.

The children born during your bereavement

will yet say in your hearing,

‘This place is too small for us;

give us more space to live in.’

Then you will say in your heart,

‘Who bore me these?

I was bereaved and barren;

I was exiled and rejected.

Who brought these up?

I was left all alone,

but these—where have they come from?’”

This is what the Sovereign LORD says:

“See, I will beckon to the nations,

I will lift up my banner to the peoples;

they will bring your sons in their arms

and carry your daughters on their hips.

Kings will be your foster fathers,

and their queens your nursing mothers.

They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground;

they will lick the dust at your feet.

Then you will know that I am the LORD;

those who hope in me will not be disappointed.”

Can plunder be taken from warriors,

or captives be rescued from the fierce?

But this is what the LORD says:

“Yes, captives will be taken from warriors,

and plunder retrieved from the fierce;

I will contend with those who contend with you,

and your children I will save.

I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;

they will be drunk on their own blood, as with wine.

Then all mankind will know

that I, the LORD, am your Savior,

your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”