We Leave May 1st.

We are leaving on May 1^st at 11: 00 a.m. I have so much I want to write about but very little bandwidth. So much to do.. Audrey has been really carrying the load on the detail of this adoption.

We’ve both been really touched at the prayers and support from our friends and family. It means so much to us. While we were getting the bedroom ready, Dave & Trish Marell took time out of their busy schedule to help us paint the room, and Gail Gilpin came over to help Audrey peel wall paper off a bedroom wall. Thank you so much!!!

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Salt & Pepper Shakers

How does someone suddenly have the desire to adopt a child from a foreign land? It is something I never thought I would do. Our journey does not start on May 1^st; it actually started back around 5 years ago in 2003 when Family Life had a special on the orphan girls in China. Let me take you back…

Through this journey of life I’ve learned that God reveals himself in the inconspicuous, not in the spectacular, on things that don’t seem obvious, like the stillness of a moment, the quiet contemplation of His magnificent, creativity, power, sovereignty, love and so many of His overlooked attributes.

For me, I love the stillness of the early morning while I’m sipping on a hot cup of tea, while the drizzle is still fresh on the back patio, and the fragrances from the roses and jasmine seem to be at their peak. It’s a time where I can have the needed quiet time with my God that refreshes my soul and while He can still be found, before the craziness of the day takes over for me, and I’m spinning at mock 10 from one thing to the next.

One of those inconspicuous moments happened while Audrey and I were celebrating our 5^th anniversary back in 2000. We had gone up to this great little town called Nevada City to spend the day. While we were eating lunch Audrey reminded me that she wanted to go check out a few more of those boutiques and look for some pewter salt & pepper shakers.

In the last five years of our marriage I had been in more of these boutiques than I can count and would like to admit. So while we were at lunch, I prayed that Jesus would bless us both with the gift of the salt & pepper shakers. Then she would be blessed since it was something she desired and I would be blessed and not be dragged into these boutiques anymore. (kidding) Since it is our five years we’ve been together would it be too much to ask? As we were sitting there about ready to leave I heard in the still small voice of our Omnipotent, Omni present, Omniscient God say; “I will bless you with the salt & pepper shakers.”

As we began to walk down the street Audrey had already scoped out the little boutique before lunch. I told her the oracle that God had revealed on my heart at lunch. Remember we’ve been looking for these particular pewter salt & pepper shakers for about five years.

Audrey looked at me as if I’d lost my mind. She said and I quote: “God does not care about these salt & pepper shakers!” I reminded her that with God small things do count, He cares about the flowers in the field and the small sparrow that lives in the tree. How much more precious you are to Him and He wants to show you today in a very simple way by blessing you with your salt & pepper shakers, so you will increase in your faith and trust in Him. God is the great multi-tasker.

Audrey was in denial… When we reached the boutique, I walked up to a little cubby hole and less than 30 seconds in the boutique picked up two pewter salt & pepper shakers that she’d been looking for.

When I looked up and saw the disbelief and questions on her face; how did you do that?

I reminded her that we serve a God who loves her and loves to reveal Himself through things unimaginable like pewter salt & pepper shakers. The lesson is to increases our faith in Him, the Almighty who cares enough to be involved in the details of our life. It was an incredible moment…

Here we are today… WHAT THE HECK DOES SALT & PEPPER SHAKERS HAVE TO DO WITH ADOPTING TWO LITTLE GIRLS FROM CHINA? You see, in God’s word He tells us in 1 John the 4 chapter that God loved us first before we loved Him. He also tells in James 1:27 that we need to take care of the orphans & the widows. Our faith back in 2000 was excited about pewter salt & pepper shakers. When we exercise our faith it is increased, we are not gifted with faith, it is something that will increase in time if we continue to exercise it.

What God was really getting us ready for, as His word reminds us, is that we are to be salt of the earth we are to be the light for our world. When I see Xiao and her sister Ya, I think of the salt & pepper shakers 8 years ago, and where God has taken us with our faith since then. I’m also reminded of 1 John the 4 chapter where Jesus said that He first loved us before we loved Him. We get to love Xiao and Ya before they know us or even love us, if they ever do. You never know.

On the next blog I will share with you how God overcame our objections about adoption. It’s pretty cool.

God Bless,

Tim & Audrey.