I really wanted to share with you the miraculous way the Lord answered our fervent prayers (that we had been praying for numerous years). In May of 2020, I was praying in the power of the Spirit of Christ that we could conceive, when I felt the Lord telling me that the reason we have not been able to conceive (we’d been trying for a number of years and both Sara and I were past our prime child bearing years) is that He wanted us to adopt first. So I prayed “OK Lord, but this is hard for me to believe, please help my small faith. If it is truly your will that we adopt, then please let us conceive this month.” I know at first glance this is too bold a prayer, seemingly a very presumptuous way to talk to God, but I think the Spirit Himself was leading me to place this fleece before Him as did Gideon (Judges 6:36-40). 2 Days after my prayer, with no notice or warning, without ever having any communication or correspondence with them ever before, DHS called us up and asked us if we could take 18-month-old Ray (her mother was a relative of Sara’s), and the following day we had this beautiful little girl! A few days after that, we were at the grocery store, and I said to Sara, “we better get a pregnancy test.” When the time came to take it, I heard her in the bathroom rustling around, AND I KNEW in my spirit she was holding a positive pregnancy test. I flew out of bed leaping with joy into the bathroom to see, and lo and behold, that is exactly what she was holding.
God is so amazing, not only did He demand something from us that was hard (adoption), but He also did all the work required to see that it was done, AND just because He is so gracious, He granted us the sign (a miracle pregnancy) to confirm that adoption was his will, bolster my faith, and answer our fervent prayer, all at the same time! When I meditate on these things, they remind me of God’s work of salvation that Jesus accomplished when He died for our sins on the cross. God demanded something impossible (moral perfection), then supplies it through His own life and death on the cross, and just because He is so gracious, He gives us the sign for faith (His resurrection, and our own regeneration). There were many ups and downs on the path to adopt Ray, many times our faith was tested and failed. Which is incredible considering the miraculous sign that God gave us at the outset of it all. But in spite of it all He was faithful. He is always faithful.