God Is With Me

On the ride home, a little tiny but strong voice reminded me of God’s presence that is with me at all times, whether through a difficult and challenging storm or a gentle yet settling ocean wave, “God is with me”. This small beautiful and innocent voice reminded me of God’s comforting peace over me and us in all we do.

Our family journey begins almost a year ago when God called my husband and me to start the process to foster a child in our home in the hope of course that we can one day adopt a child. Fostering a child has been in our hearts since before we had our own biological children but the timing never seemed to fit our season of life that we were in or and it was more fear and anxiety that we chose not to listen to God years ago to start and welcome a child into our home.

Fast forward almost a year in the process today, we have met wonderful foster families that are working alongside us in the journey of foster care. We are now joyfully licensed to foster and on 9/6/22 our lives changed for the better. We received a call on Labor Day 9/5/22 about a beautiful, smart and loving little girl, that as much as our anxiety was on the rise and unexpected moment of an unsettling timeframe of disbelief that the moment was here, we said YES!

We gathered in our prayer room to learn more about her and then had a family meeting with our children of what was shared and we all had nervous but exciting smiling faces towards one another. Our minds and especially mine throughout the rest of the day and evening jumbled up with so much curiosity and excitement but also fear and anxiety that would creep in on occasions of what it would be like to finally have completed all of our requirements and be in the position to say YES. 

I reflected on past experiences and situations that God has led us to obey and he reminded me of his undivine timeframe that always works out the way he wants it to, gave me a sense of comfort to know that God does not give us too much of what we cannot handle in order to be successful in his kingdom as we are serving him and his children. 

Upon the arrival of picking her up as a family, we sat in the parking lot, praying together for our family and hers to have a healthy and positive transition as scary as it was for all of us involved including her. As we waited in the lobby for her, we were filled with jitters of anxiety and joy. As she came out to meet us, she was shy but smiled so gently that her heart was shown through God’s eyes and presence. We introduced ourselves and hoped that she would be okay on the way home not expecting much chatter between anyone at the time but then we instantly heard her beautiful voice talking to us about her family and how much she misses them and prays for them to get better, her favorite things such as Frozen and then we heard through the stillness of the quiet background, “God is with me” and “God is with us all the time”, we were shocked but filled by so much hope, love and comfort to see how God has and was working through her this whole time. 

I am a prayerful mama, I am not perfect at it but I try my best to pray for everyone that God leads me to or things that we are struggling with and as I look back into my prayers and journaling throughout our process of fostering, I prayed for God to prepare and be with the child that would be in our home to love, care and support and hearing her small voice in the backseat, gave me goosebumps of how God has been with her this whole time, even before we met her, he listened to my prayers and he listened to hers.

God reminded me that evening we picked her up and took her home, how he has not left either of us during this challenging and different process we have been experiencing in our family. God allowed me to open my eyes, heart, mind, and spirit to have child-like faith as she brought that into our home to see and feel. All I can end with is Thank you God for not leaving or forsaking us in times of difficulty, fear, and anxiety, and trusting in you throughout the process makes things so much simpler than we try to make it out to be in our own lack of power, we don’t have. 

Her small and gentle voice of hers will permanently be engraved in my heart, mind, and spirit as she constantly shares “God is with us all the time, he doesn’t leave us, we are not alone”. I pray for you that as you read this blog feel inspired and filled with God’s presence to know that you are not alone even if it seems that way physically, you are loved and cared for by our almighty God our Father in heaven. 

Prayer

Thank you, Lord, for giving us the comfort of knowing you are constantly present in our day-to-day thoughts, actions, and emotions. I pray for all of us to continue to experience God’s appointments with you so we can feel encouraged, loved, and comforted in moments of sadness and change when we are feeling lonely. We pray this in your loving son’s Jesus name, Amen-Amen.