An Unexpected Phone Call


About a week ago, we got a phone call from DHS about 8:30 pm. To remind everyone, our home has been closed for over 6 months now. I knew that even with us closing, there were always going to be opportunities with kinship placements that might happen just because of the people we have relationships with now. It wasn't kinship, but our region was in a bind. They had a sibling group of 3 sleeping in the office for the second night in a row because there were no open homes. The supervisor suggested us since we had "recently" closed and I assume because all of DHS knows that we don't say no when they call. Seth and I took a few minutes to talk about it and offered to take one child.

We got everything ready, 6 of our 7 children were already asleep, so I just talked to my oldest son about what had happened and that we were going to take a 1 year old for a little bit. He was hesitant and surprisingly upset that we were going to separate the 1 year old from her siblings. We prayed for a home for all of them together and shortly after, I received a call that another home had been found and that they would take all 3. Glory to God. 

I sat down with my oldest, who just turned 9, and explained to him that sometimes God gives you opportunities where He tests your obedience and once you obey, He closes that door. Without missing a beat, he says, "Just like Abraham and his son. God was testing him to see if he loved God more than his son and once God saw that he did, God provided a sacrifice instead of his son." Ya'll, I am so blessed. God has taken us on a journey, and still is, that allows real-life opportunities to live out the Gospel in front of my children all the time. It is such a gift!

I'm not sure what this means for us. Seth and I talked about why we're closed right now if we would take a child if they called. We are prayerfully considering opening back up this fall and trusting that if God doesn't want us to, He will once again, shut that door. And if He holds the door open, we might just be hopping back on the roller coaster. 


"Then the angel of the Lord called again to Abraham from heaven. 'This is what the Lord says: Because you have obeyed Me and have not withheld even your son, your only son, I swear by My own Name that I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number, like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies. And through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed—all because you have obeyed Me.'” Genesis 22:15-18

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