Sunday, January 16, 2011

Orphan Day Of Prayer {Sunday Snapshot}

Have you ever prayed for something so hard that you just KNEW in your heart that God would answer your prayer.......and then He didn't?  At least you didn't think He did.  I have.  There is a child on the waiting list I had a very, very strong feeling KNEW was our daughter.  I was drawn to this child.  I sent my wonderful friend Annie an email one day and said "I don't know if this is compassion or if she is ours." I did know that I HAD to pray for this child.  I have never prayed so much in my life.  I prayed for God's will for her. I prayed for God to speak to my husband's heart about her. I prayed that SOMEONE would love this little girl as much as I do and bring her home. Every where I turned there were signs that I was following God's lead to this child.  I even got a fortune cookie and her name was on the fortune!  I prayed.  I prayed in the shower. I prayed while I cooked for my family. I prayed while I did laundry. I prayed while I drove to and from our children's school. I can honestly say that I have never prayed so much and I have never seen so many signs that I was doing the right thing. The more I prayed the more I saw links to this sweet little girl.  But you see.....they were not links to bring her into our family.  They were links drawing me closer to God.  The more I prayed the closer I felt to God. My husband told me he didn't feel like she would be a good fit for our family. After we started talking about it I knew he was right that our family would probably not be the best choice for this child.  It would have been so easy for me to stop praying for her....but I couldn't.  God was calling me to pray for her and to help find her family.  Know what?  I am pretty sure she is going to have a family soon.  Know what?  That makes this mama's heart VERY happy.....an answer to prayers....not my original specific prayers but an answer that God's will is being followed for her and in turn drawing me closer to God.  It would have been so easy for us to fill out the paperwork and bring her home but our home is not the home she needs.

Having realized all of this I thought it would be wonderful to have an Orphan Day Of Prayer.  My friend Annie has been doing a lot of praying too.  She has her own story about what brought us to this Orphan Day Of Prayer.  In the past few months we have made each other laugh and cry a LOT.  We both have surrendered our hearts to God's will in our lives as we pray for the many orphans, their needs, the needs of the families who would love to bring them home and those who are home and facing the realities of grief and adjustment.

If you would like to join Annie and me this week please post your prayer request here on my blog or on Annie's blog (or both) this week. Your prayer request can be anything that is weighing on your heart about orphans. Please also join us in praying for everyone who posts on our blogs.  Both of us have a button on our blog that we would love you to share with others in asking them to also pray for the orphans. We originally were going to have a day of prayer but we have decided to do this all week.  So starting today please feel free to post your prayer requests. Even if they are unspoken requests....God knows your heart and He will hear  your prayers.




Ni Hao Y'all

10 comments:

  1. Thanks for doing this.
    We live in China and foster a little boy with Down Syndrome. Our hope and prayer would be that the orphanage would be willing to do the necessary paperwork to get him on the CCAA list so that we could begin to advocate for a family for him.
    We are also praying that a family would step forward even before the orphanage releases him as this often makes them more willing to put children on the list.

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  2. I just LOVE this idea.
    What a blessing it will be to so many!
    Happy Sunday :)

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  3. Thank you Sharon! This is a fantastic idea! I will focus my prayers this week also:)
    I will tell you our prayer success story...We are adopting Min, featured on your Wonderful Waiting Kids blog right now.
    I prayed for seven years that God would change my husbands heart. And He did. We prayed and fasted about whether we should adopt Min who was a bit of a stretch from the 'checklist' we were turning in to our agency, but we had prayed that the Lord would lead us to the girl who would be right for our family, And God gave us the peace and the answers we needed to go forward.

    Money and time became an issue so we fasted and prayed for direction and we got given the idea of our fundraiser and have been supported. We are currently praying for Min's heart, expedited process and our fundraiser and we know that God hears and will answer with His best plan for Min and for us.

    Thank you for letting us share and letting us be a part of this.

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  4. Dear Sharon,

    Thank you for doing this ! Please pray for my RH's soul and heart that the Holy Spirit will give him the desire to adopt again. Please pray that this is God's will. My RH"s name is Todd.

    God Bless you,

    Lee ANn

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  5. I am praying for all of the children you advocate for. Thanks for all you do for the children of China..

    I am asking for prayer for our family's fundraising efforts to bring Max home. Thanks for doing this.

    Blessings,
    Karen R

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  6. May God's blessings rain down upon you, Annie, the children, and all the families you are lifting up in prayer.

    I would also ask for prayer for the CCAA officials who are responsible for the new regulations and their implementation. Thanks to them we are able to reuse our dossier and hopefully meet our new DD that much sooner! My prayer is that they continue to have hearts for their children, smoothing the road and strengthening the proverbial red thread between them and other countries so that more children can be blessed with loving forever families.

    Even more specifically, I pray that some day they will allow parents to bring two children home on an old dossier - not as a special favor but as the norm.

    Again, thank you. When two or more gather in prayer, mountains can be moved!!

    Faith

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  7. Thanks for doing this. What kind hearts you have. Please pray for our Anna waiting for us in China. Please pray that we are able to get her home before her 8th birthday. I will also be praying for the orphans as well.
    Blessings

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  8. I will take prayer anytime I can get it. Please pray for God to allign our family with his will. We are awaiting for PA for a little boy and have already been turned down once. Please pray that little guy will find his family soon even if it is not with our family.

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  9. I meant to post on here when I first read this and got distracted and didn't. LOVE this idea from you and Annie!! It's wonderful and will continue in prayer, too! Our hearts are so drawn to help and we've been talking about what we may be doing after Kaleb's adoption.

    So...prayers for clarity on the Lord's direction for us in adoption ministry. Prayers for continued financial provision for Kaleb's adoption and process. And....I have that sneaky extra adoption written into our approval and HS and for the Lord to let us know if we're supposed to use it. Right now my hubby says no after Kaleb. We'll see. ;)

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  10. Would you please include us in your prayers that God will grant His blessing to add another beautiful child into our family?

    Thank you so very much!

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