A Father's Invitation

I remember well the first time he came to sit on my lap. Just a little, adorable 3 year old who liked to talk non-stop (never even seeming to realize I had limited understanding of all he was talking about!) I was a missionary in South Korea and one of the many things included in our fun was to go to a local orphanage to show love to the children. Every 5 or 6 weeks my fellow teachers and I made our way by city bus to the orphanage. And each time my little 3 year old friend would come to sit on my lap and tell me how his life had been since I had seen him last. I learned his sad story of abandonment. Left on a beach as if he were just a useless old sack. How I longed to be able to take away that shame and fear and sorrow that he possessed. If only I could adopt him as mine. But sadly it could not be. I was not old enough to adopt by the laws of the United States. And I still had to finish my university degree before I could get a job.
However, with little realization by me, a seed had fallen on the soil of my heart. Placed there by the One who knows and sees all. One who had the ultimate everlasting love. One who invented adoption Himself. Adoption of any and all who would accept His invitation to become His daughters and sons.
Many years removed from that experience in South Korea, my husband and I began to talk about the fact we still would like one more child. The seed that had been planted in my heart so many years before began to sprout and grow. We began to pray long and hard about whether it should be a child from an orphanage. A place of abandonment, a place of shame, fear and sorrow.
Through a series of events and hours of prayer we believe God did lead us to adopt a child. But not just any child. It was to be a child He picked out.
And then the real work , heartache, longing and difficulty after difficulty began. “Why God? If this is from You, is it so hard! Why all this paperwork and money and weeks and months of time? Could You really be leading? Wouldn't You please make this process a little bit easier?” These are the type of thoughts my husband and I had through out the adoption process. And as time past and the difficulties only increased we realized just how inadequate we were for this task. And it drove us to our knees even more. We have found that this is the best place to be! For we began to see even deeper glimpses of God's own adoption story of us. How difficult His journey has been. The work, the heartache, the longing, the difficulty after difficulty that He endured and is enduring for us.
We were able to meet our hoped for daughter in June. She immediately took to me. But having not been around men much, she was more shy around Trent. With longing in his heart, Trent and I specifically prayed that she would be more interactive and affectionate with him. That day when we went to visit, she hardly even looked at me but ran right up to Trent and threw her arms around him and said, “Hello Papa”.
Trent and I then had another glimpse of God's own feelings and experience when one of His children accepts His invitation and crys, “Abba Father!” (See Romans 8 and Galations 4)
After many more difficulties and delays, which were hard to understand and to endure, we were finally able to bring our daughter home from Russia, Dec 30, 2011. Her name is Zarina Grace. She is now 7 years old.
The name Zarina was her Russian name. It has three meanings. One means “gold”. The other meaning is “the wife of the Czar or King” And it can mean “Queen”. We gave her the name of Grace to compliment the first name and tell her adoption story. Not her earthly adoption story but her eternal adoption story. For isn't this what God wants for all of His adopted sons and daughters? To have His character perfectly reproduced in us and be refined as gold by His Grace? Hasn't He not only adopted us but wants us to be His bride? Doesn't He want us to reign with Him eternally?
We do not know the exact time our eternal adoption story will be complete and we can go home with our Heavenly Father. There are many difficulties and delays which we can not understand and it is even more difficult to endure. But the invitation to become the adopted children of God and to become His bride has been extended to each of us by His Grace and with His everlasting Love. Have we accepted this invitation? Oh how God must long to take away our shame, fear, and sorrow. I pray that each reading this will accept our Heavenly Father's invitation today!