What a Homecoming!

 

 We are pleased to announce that our daughter's adoption papers have all been signed and sealed.  The books are closed.  This long-awaited adoption is final.  Brookley Patience is officially our daughter, and we have gladly welcomed her home to North Chesterfield just before her first birthday!  Welcome home!

 This will be an especially joyous Thanksgiving 2023 for us as we include our daughter and look up to praise our Heavenly Father.  He has remained steadfast and stable amid all the changes we’ve encountered.  His eye and hand have been upon us and to Him we are truly grateful.  We can barely recall life before this sweet baby girl entered our lives.  It’s clear that Brookley Patience was handpicked as the best fit for our little family.  And time has proven that she is everything we could have ever hoped for or imagined … a pure treasure!  Just see our smiles on the day finalization papers arrived in the apartment mailbox just a few weeks before we moved!

Each day we count it a JOY and privilege to remind this precious child that she is beautiful, loved, chosen, and set apart for a specific purpose.  We reiterate that she belongs to us, and that we belong to her, just as we are knit into God’s family, and He is tied to us.  These are truths we each need to repeat and take to heart because they are easy to forget or confuse. 

The song Come Unto Jesus, by Laura Story, has been a special worship song I often share with Brookley.  I pray it blesses her as she grows and reminds her of her tender need for her Savior.  I pray it blesses you as well as walk with the Lord these difficult days. 

 Enjoy these lyrics and the link:

“Come unto Jesus, all you who are weary; Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel; Here bring your broken heart, broken and needy; Come unto Jesus, Mighty to heal! … Lay down your burdens, He is enough! Come unto Jesus, and rest in His love.”

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlYVF_jGmf8

 

Adoption has taught me to run to the Father with my Hannah heart.  The journey has reminded me to fervently cry out to my Maker and ask, seek, and knock like never before.  I know that Abba Daddy desires to hold my heart, hear my petitions, and turn grief into gladness!  He loves to heal His daughters, but are we persistently asking and believing?

 

I am also learning to surrender my worries and fears about the future and raising Brookley in such a broken world.  Will I be able to be the mother she needs?  What if she doesn’t receive the news about adoption the way I hope and pray?  What if she is confused about where she belongs?

 

The Lord has asked me to take these thoughts captive and lay them before Jesus just as Paul instructed.  2 Corinthians 10:5 says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Instead of dwelling on anxious thoughts and lies from the enemy, He asks me to replace them with truth from His Word.  If the Father has chosen me for this task, then He will most certainly equip me. 

 

Abba continues to whisper to me, “Daughter, this is only your temporary home.  I’m preparing the perfect place for you to reunite with your entire family.  Down here I need you to come to Me daily and let Holy Spirit guide your parenting, planning, and homeschooling.  Let go of the striving and the desire to please people.  Keep your eyes fixed on Me and I will provide for you one day at a time, just as I did during the adoption journey.  Do you trust Me?”

And I reply, “Yes!  You are beyond trustworthy!  Just look at the precious daughter you gave me last Christmas.  She is the tangible reminder of your faithfulness.  Help me never forget how you provided.”

 

Psalm 91 is another place the Lord has been speaking to me as a mom.  This passage gives us a clear picture of the Lord God as our refuge and strength no matter where we reside or what we face.  It’s a passage about protection and enduring faith.  I read it and see how I need to lay down fear of the unknown and fear of the future.  (This was everything I was tested with during the adoption journey.)  Psalm 91 is a passage worth praying over your family daily.  My son and I have set a goal to commit this important Psalm to memory, and I know Brookley will join in with us as she grows.  Declaring the truth of God’s Word will be a critical weapon we carry going forward as soldiers awaiting a new Kingdom.

In addition, I am reminded that an even more grand “homecoming” is approaching us.  This is the day believers will be “caught up” to join the Lord Jesus Christ in the air!  The word for this in the Greek is harpazo and it means “to seize, to snatch, or carry away”.  Paul describes the event as happening in a “twinkling of an eye”, an instantaneous change (1 Cor. 15:52).  We are to encourage one another as this day approaches.  Why? Because trials and tribulations will increase and waiting for our blessed hope will become more difficult. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-5:6 highlights that this day should not surprise us if we are children of the light watching and looking for signs on earth:

“¹⁶ For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. ¹⁷ After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ Therefore encourage one another with these words. 

5 Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, ² for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³ While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. ⁴ But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. ⁵ You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶ So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.

 

Those of us in Christ (the Bride or Church) will one day soon be swept up by the bridegroom (Jesus Christ) and seated for a wedding feast.  Yes, the Lord is preparing to call his children home to the wedding feast of the Lamb!  Are we looking up for Christ to return and reunite us to himself? What a glorious invitation and promise from scripture as we anticipate his return!

 

Every day we become more aware that this is not our final destination or home.  We feel more and more like sojourners in a foreign land.  Eternity in the presence of the Lord is what our hungry hearts long for where everything is set right, and evil is ended.  As a family of four now, we long to see Jesus face-to-face and meet our children in heaven.  But we also understand our call to occupy here on Earth and share His truth until the end.  Our homeschool motto sums it up pretty well: “To know God and to make Him known.”  So today we choose to praise our faithful Father for his patient, steadfast heart.  We worship Him in the waiting.  And we also celebrate the good gifts He has given us in our son Trace and daughter Brookley!

In Revelation 3, the faithful church of Philadelphia is praised for enduring and holding fast until the end.  This is my prayer as the days grow darker … that we would persevere and keep looking up, anticipating our true home to come.  Until then let’s remember to look out at the weak, the needy, the oppressed, and the vulnerable.  There are orphans in desperate need of homes and widows in need of encouragement.  Look at the number of children in this country waiting to be fostered or adopted.  What if we each cared for one of these in Jesus’ name?

Above all, please remember that God has a HUGE heart for adoption.  He thought up the idea of grafting someone into a family and He modeled it too.  Just look at how the Gentiles were included with His chosen children, the Jews.  Look also at the lives of Moses, Samuel, Mephibosheth, and Esther.  Shouldn’t we follow the Father's heart and carry out His example while we still have today?

 Please Pray for Us Going Forward: 

-Pray for an opportunity to meet Judge Randall G. Johnson who was the presiding judge in Henrico’s circuit court when Brookley’s adoption was finalized. 

-We are praying for a continued strong attachment/bond between Brookley and each of us as she matures.  May she always understand who she is and whose she is.  

-We pray for opportunities to encourage Brookley’s birth family with the light of Jesus. 

-Pray we would know the triune God more deeply and make Him known more clearly.

 

For the love of adoption,

The Gillette Family