“Whoever receives one such child in My name receives Me…”  Matthew 18:5

“In love He predestined us to be adopted as His sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with His pleasure and will…”  Ephesians 1:5

What a year it has been!  But it is not over yet.  No matter what season of life you are in, God is calling you to a place of deep and wholehearted relationship with Him.  We desire to see women empowered to live their Christian faith confidently with transformed minds and hearts.  Psalm 33:11 & 14–15 says, “The counsel of the Lord stands forever, the plans of His heart to all generations.  From the place of His dwelling He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.”

Our mission is helping women be fully surrendered to the lordship of Jesus Christ and courageously on-mission for Him – one heart at a time.  One of the ways we do that is by sharing real-life stories of Christian women both past and present who have decided to follow Jesus wholeheartedly in this way.  We pray that each story told over the next few months is used by God to fashion your individual heart, to know and experience Him even more deeply, and to joyfully do His will to His glory!        

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Three years ago, Megan and I (Jenni) were standing in my kitchen near the end of a baby shower I was hosting for a mutual friend.  As so often happens when women of God gather together, the conversation quickly took a deeper turn as several ladies shared about their desires and experiences related to children, motherhood, and even adoption.  I recall Megan specifically sharing that although she and her husband already had several children, that adoption had always been on her heart.  God is always at work making His plans and purposes come to pass and helping us to personally experience Him.  I asked Megan recently to share about the season she has been in this year.  This is Megan’s story…    

Will you tell us about your journey toward foster care and adoption?  How have you experienced God throughout it?

Since I was little, I’ve been fascinated by stories like Anne of Green Gables. A vulnerable child with nothing but personality to offer is loved and invited into community. Throughout my teenaged years, I was around some foster/adoptive families and loved watching that process. I knew that that was a deep desire of my own heart put there by God. So when my husband and I talked about having kids, I told him that I wanted biological children but wanted to make sure we left room for adoption and he was 100% on board.   

Fast forward a few years and we have 3 biological children, and my husband got a vasectomy. We then began the process of going through DHS. Unfortunately, that was a chaotic mess. In the middle of that mess, someone else contacted us about needing an adoptive family for a pregnant mom. We said yes. And a week later, that baby went to heaven. A week after that… DHS dropped our case because after 4 months we were “wasting their time”, even though the caseworker had completely forgotten about us.  

Brokenhearted and so confused about why God would place this so deeply on our hearts with no hope, we began looking at private adoption. We met with a few agencies and just didn’t have peace. And then… God dropped our nephew in our lap for 8 months and holy moly did that test us. We helped him how we could until his mom got on her feet. And then we were back to square one.  

4 months later, we heard of an agency that is basically a (FANTASTIC) mediator between you and DHS, and we felt like that’s where God pointed us. AND IT TOOK US A YEAR TO GET OUR STUFF TOGETHER!!! (Note: This was totally on us… the agency was on top of it!) Then in December of 2019, we were asked to take a baby… the age we’d been hoping for. And there was no peace. We had to say no. My heart broke again. GOD, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? And then God told our friends who’d been fostering to close their home and He told us…. to take both of the kiddos they’d been caring for. Not the age we were thinking, and TWO. But there was no question about it. There was just peace and YES. The rest is history.

How has choosing a fully surrendered heart to God led you to be on-mission for His purposes?

When I was going through it (Who am I kidding? Some days it’s still this way), it was messy and chaotic, and I couldn’t see Him. But when I look back, I see that He was cracking me wide open to show me the equivalent of how He sought after me to adopt me into His family. His relentless pursuit of me and throwing His arms wide open for ME… my understanding of the depth of His love is forever changed. When I stop and think about how He was glorified through it all and how many people He’s allowed little ol’ me to be an influence to in this area, I’m wrecked all over again but in the most beautiful way.

Agency: Family for Life

https://www.familyforlifeok.org/

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For more stories like this one, check out the book The Wholehearted Woman: Who She is and Why She Matters  by sisters and co-authors, Jenni Walker and Beth Doohan.  With heartfelt messages that will challenge your faith, stories of other Wholehearted Women, and reflection questions to dive deeper, this is a great resource for personal devotion or small group study!

Now available through Barnes and Noble, Westbow Press, Walmart, and other bookstores.