Wednesday, October 22, 2008

THE NEWSOM CREW




Hello from the Newsom Family!! We are new bloggers......so please be patient with us as we learn and grow!! We are very excited to begin and share our families adoption journey with you all!!


This journey truly began several years ago when the Lord clearly planted a seed in my heart about adoption. I shared how the Lord was speaking to my heart about needy, lost, hurting, lonely, and abused children with my husband during that time but we both felt it wasn't the right time to pursue adoption as we had 3 very young biological children and were expecting our sweet baby#4!! About 6 months ago, however, the Lord began stirring my heart about adoption, again. This time, however, those stirrings have only grown stronger and He placed in my heart a strong desire to pursue adoption, NOW. The words He gave me during my quiet times were clear and precise. In reading scripture and praying, the Holy Spirit continued to speak....."You are called to adoption and the time is Now. Trust ME." These murmurings in my heart were way beyond my own earthly, selfish desires- they were spiritual directives from God. "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." +James 1:27. Friends, now the Lord was really convicting me and had been for several months. The idea of adoption was no longer just an idea to discuss, adoption became an act of obedience in following the Lord's will for our family. "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord; plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future." +Jeremiah 29:11. I really felt the Lord saying to me, personally, "you need to take up your cross and follow Me." +Mark 8:34.

I do need to back up in our story, though, because while the Lord was truly giving me spiritual jolts of conviction and directions......Joel, my husband and the leader of our family, had not heard these same messages from God! In fact, he was quite disturbed by the idea of adding more kiddos and craziness to our already busy and crazy family!! He listened to me share my heart, but he did not share my heart's new desire. He was a true "RELUCTANT SPOUSE"!! I began to feel a wall come between us as I would share what the Lord was speaking to me through church messages, songs, Sunday school lessons, quiet times and I began to feel so isolated. Joel was not really interested in hearing any more about making our lives more complicated by adopting and while he agreed to pray about it, I knew he was really not on board. I was so confused. I started to question God's messages to me...... Why would God lay such a heavy burden for orphans on my heart if He didn't open my husband's heart to adoption??? I prayed that... if this was in fact what the Lord was calling our family to do, that HE would soften Joel's heart and speak to him because I couldn't and shouldn't push this big of a family decision on my husband. I needed to listen to God's word. "Be still and know that I am God." +Psalm 46:10.

So I prayed. And I prayed. And our family began to pray and our new "adoption friends" began to pray for us. The Lord did really begin working on softening Joel's heart. One of the very noticeable moments when I knew God was truly serious about adoption and our family and about changing my husband's heart...... We were visiting our home church over a long weekend and the message that Sunday was about "how each of us are adopted sons and daughters of God" and how as Christians we need to show compassion for the less fortunate in our world that also need to be adopted and we need to be Christ-like and show God's love and mercy to the orphans, widows, and distressed in society. --- WOW God---- .....and the walls came a tumbling down.

Over the next several weeks, Joel began to feel the Lord softening his heart and attitude towards adoption and he slowly started sharing this with me and even with others. I had been praying for "like-mindedness" and the Lord has totally changed Joel's heart about adoption. I was quiet and still in the Lord and now I am so blessed to know that I didn't manipulate him or his feelings about this, but instead- God Moved a MOUNTAIN!! So, here we are......striving to stay faithful and trusting that we are in the center of God's will in moving forward with adoption.

It's been a crazy few weeks since we started our adoption process. It's been a journey like no other I've ever experienced. I've learned so much, but I'm still so confused at times! It's exciting, it's emotional, it's exhausting, it's overwhelming, and yet I now have peace, because we are now moving forward, acting in faith and obedience to God's calling for us as a family and we are resting in the center of His will. ----Blessings, Amy