My Isaac Part 10 Not My Will, But Thine Lord, Again

  We'd been retired from fostering for just two months; my book had been printed, 24 of my songs had been recorded, we were helping with a building project at our church and preparing for a children's ministry to begin in the fall. The path ahead seemed pretty clear. 

Summer was just getting started when life took a most unexpected turn.

From my blog June 26, 2008:

(Princess- Papa's Girl)

 For those of you who have been reading my posts for the past few months, you know that we retired from providing foster care in April. Well.....we got a call on Monday about a little girl who left our home four months ago. I had asked to be kept informed of how she was doing, so our social worker was calling to tell us that she was coming back into care. We weren't home when the call came, but she had left a message. I wasn't able to contact our social worker until Tuesday morning. I told her I had just had a dream on Sunday night about having another child come, then remembered(in my dream) that we are no longer licensed. She said, "Welllll.....actually you are because I haven't finished the paperwork yet. She said of course, that she wanted to respect our decision to retire, and there was no pressure to take this little girl, but that she knew we would want to know, and that since she had been with us, we were the first choice for placement.

 Hmmmmm......haven't we been through this already? Didn't I just write the end of the story? But then I got thinking about where 'the story' had ended. Where it ended was with me 'laying my Isaac down,' and as I thought about that, I remembered that when Abraham lay Isaac down...God gave Isaac back to him. I just didn't think that God was going to do that in our situation...even though I know he has in the past. But, as I said to my husband, "What do you do when a baby is dropped on you? You catch it!" So, for whatever the reason, and for however long, we now have an 18 month old little sweetheart back in our home. We're just going to take it day by day and see where the Lord leads because this turn of events has caught us quite by surprise.

 I can't help but think of some of the 'sports stars' who have retired over the years, just to make a comeback. Well, I'm sure we have them all beat with our two month retirement! I'm also expecting to hear many "I told you so's," from all of those people who didn't believe we would actually retire!

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Note added April 2009. Someone reading this might ask, "Was God really telling you to give up fostering?" My answer....Yes, I believe He was telling me I needed to put fostering on the altar and surrender my will to His. At the time I believed that when I lay it down, it was forever; that that was God's will...and I was at peace with that. But I know now that once I completely surrendered my will, by taking My hands off, and trusting HIS hand I was finally doing all that he asked. The last thing I expected was to have him give it all back to me! But God has a plan; we still don't know where this path is leading, but I have peace that I am now truly doing it for HIM, and not just for me, and I can trust him to write the end of the story.

Psalm 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Continued...Part 11

You can follow the series here:  Our Foster Adoption Story

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