Despite the busyness and exhaustion, I am blown away and so very grateful to God for where we are today. On August 31, a mother and her four kids walked into our lives. Jeremy and I, my parents, and a close friend committed to housing them and helping them for four months. Today, almost exactly four months later, this Mom has a solid job, a house to live in, a car to drive, and a new family. In August I would have called her an acquaintance and today I call her a sister in Christ. God has been so incredibly good.
But it's not as though everything has been easy. You know it is never easy to stop cycles and behaviors that have existed for generations, to break away from habits and relationships that are destructive, to admit your on the verge of losing your kids, to reach out for help. It's never easy to merge lives and allow almost complete strangers to raise your children. It is never easy to start over, to completely begin again from scratch. I think the bravest people out there are the one's who aren't afraid to reach out for help, and I don't know if I have ever met anyone as brave as Andria. One phone call changed her life forever. One phone call brought a new circle of friends and family who rallied around her in support of what she was doing. One phone call found a home for herself and her children, and bought her time to clear her head and her heart. One phone call led her to a church where she would continue her walk with God, deepen her relationship with him and allow her to become baptized. I can't imagine anything more worth my exhaustion.
Back in August, had I known what lied ahead, I would have balked... I would have kindly declined... I would have said I'm not fit, I can't do it. But I would have been missing an opportunity to grow and change and witness an incredible amount of beauty.
God had been arranging our hearts and our life and the lives of those around us for this, though I didn't know it. He had put the YMCA in my path because he knew the 2 to 7 kids I would be toting would need some space to run around on cold days and classes to enjoy. He put an incredible after school program in my path called Imagine If, because he knew the kids would need a place to go after school, and He wanted to surround them with people who loved God and would invest in them. He put my parents in my path (literally--they live 3 houses down the street) and moved their hearts to equally respond and open their homes to the 2 older boys because He wanted them to have a place they would call "peaceful".
I have learned through this experience that we NEVER KNOW what God has in store! We never know what he might be carefully orchestrating in the background of our lives, if only we will be patient enough for his good and perfect timing. For some crazy reason, God has desired to use people--his beautiful and flawed creation--to carry out his work in this world. In this case God used me, my husband, my parents, my siblings, and my incredible friends to be an extension of his love. I don't believe Jeremy and I ever would have allowed something as big as this to enter so seamlessly into our lives had God not been busy at work in our own souls in the months and years prior. Through trials and difficult circumstances, God had wrecked us in a way and as a result loosened our grip on our expectations for our lives. I almost feel that for a season God was practically prying my fingers open, loosening the intense grip I had on my life, showing me that my control was an illusion. Each time I loosened my grip, I released more of myself and my life into his hands and his control. That process left me in a very raw and open place, but a place that allowed some breathing room in my soul, and a place that would ultimately allow a change such as this to enter into my life.
Here we all are on the Sunday of Andria and her sons baptism at the Bridge Community Church:
December 31 will mark the end of our contracted time with Safe Families. I cannot say enough about this incredible organization! They truly saved the day for all of us, entering in and handling the legal work so my family could become a safe family and keep the kids. An organization such as this made ALL the difference! Without Safe Families, this story would not have had the chance to take place. I can't give these people enough props. Read more about Safe Families here: http://www.safe-families.org/home.aspx/indianapolis
Until next time...
-Emma
I have learned through this experience that we NEVER KNOW what God has in store! We never know what he might be carefully orchestrating in the background of our lives, if only we will be patient enough for his good and perfect timing. For some crazy reason, God has desired to use people--his beautiful and flawed creation--to carry out his work in this world. In this case God used me, my husband, my parents, my siblings, and my incredible friends to be an extension of his love. I don't believe Jeremy and I ever would have allowed something as big as this to enter so seamlessly into our lives had God not been busy at work in our own souls in the months and years prior. Through trials and difficult circumstances, God had wrecked us in a way and as a result loosened our grip on our expectations for our lives. I almost feel that for a season God was practically prying my fingers open, loosening the intense grip I had on my life, showing me that my control was an illusion. Each time I loosened my grip, I released more of myself and my life into his hands and his control. That process left me in a very raw and open place, but a place that allowed some breathing room in my soul, and a place that would ultimately allow a change such as this to enter into my life.
Here we all are on the Sunday of Andria and her sons baptism at the Bridge Community Church:
Until next time...
-Emma
