I have had my share of challenges with my health over the
past six months. I have had so many wonderful friends come alongside me through
this difficult time that I am so humbled & grateful for their support. This
past week I had one of my dear friends call me up to offer to take me to lunch.
I know that seems like a small thing but the timing was ideal. I had fasted the
night before for lab work (they took 11
tubes of blood) that morning, my preschooler was throwing a fit, the brakes on
the van were squeaking not to mention the fact that I was hungry, irritable
& in pain. I was practically in tears when she called & oh so thankful
she did. We returned from lunch around 2pm. High schoolers were coming home
from school & we saw this glowing, very pregnant girl walking up the
street, backpack on, ankles swollen. We stopped & introduced ourselves.
The girl was carrying a large volume of English Poetry in her hand & she
spoke of her plans to graduate high school (in 2014). She told us she was
having a girl & what all she was looking forward to in her future with her
daughter. I offered to babysit so she could study as we exchanged contact
information. She had such a sweet spirit. We prayed together briefly & she
departed after a quick hug. As I watched
her walk across the street, her dress swung freely in the light breeze, the
Lord whispered to me, “This is your baby girl….oh & that is your mission
field.”
No, I will NOT be adopting her daughter; her daughter will
not live in my home for us to love & cherish. I will however, come
alongside her & encourage her as she enters motherhood. I have been good at
encouraging young mothers in the past & with the Lord’s help I will
continue to exhort young women in motherhood.
I won’t say I didn’t cry a few tears when God told me this. It was a
baby girl & I would be pouring into both her life & her mothers’ but
she would not be mine in the terms that I had thought.
I have been in contact with the birth mother of the foster
girl that was in our home a few months ago. She has a long way to go with the
horrors that have happened to her & the demons she still wrestles with. She
has been cleaning my bathrooms to earn a little gas money to go visit her
daughter which has benefited us both-we
get to talk each week, she gets some cash & my bathrooms are sparkling
clean! (so clean that Taylor thought he didn’t need to wash his hands after
using the bathroom because, ‘the bathroom is so clean that there are no more germs on the toilet!’ Thus he didn't need to wash, gotta love 4 yr old logic!) J
I also will NOT be going to Honduras on a medical mission trip this fall but the neighborhood across the street has a teenage mom, a mother battling severe mental illness, a group of kids that hangs out at my house often & many others that He has called me to be a part of if only I will obey the call to the mission field across the street.
My God really does have a sense of humor… “this is your baby
girl…oh & that is your mission field.”
