Hermana, Sister

The day after I clearly heard the Lord calling us to adopt I had a BIG problem.  You see my sister, my very first best friend, was out of the country and I couldn’t tell her our news!  One week prior to that insane Father’s Day my sister had married her best friend, Paul Sutton, and she was still honeymooning. 

Diana and I have always had such a beautiful and real friendship.  We have shared secrets, fears, joys and struggles our entire lives.  So naturally the first person I wanted to share our news with was her!

I wanted so badly to share what was happening with our friends but a part of me felt like my sister should be the first to know.  As I prayed for wisdom, knowing that Diana would not be home for another 2 days I gave myself permission to call a dear friend to ask for her prayers.  The Lord used her to give me such peace in that conversation!  She blessed me with encouragement and a promise to pray for our family during this process.  In fact she said, “As soon as I hang up I am going to go pray for you!” The next day I allowed myself to share our news at the end of a devotional time with the Eternal Staff.  The response I received was overwhelming- encouragement, love, prayers…

In that moment a passage of scripture came to mind:

²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. ²⁷For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. ²⁸There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave^[ nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. - Galatians 3:26-29

In this passage Paul  is referring to the status that all Christians share-  having been adopted into God’s family enjoying all the privileges  and inheritance rights of God’s children.  Once we as believers have in faith  “put on Christ” we become new creations- new creations in which the distinction between “Jew and Greek” disappears. 

I realized then that my adopted brothers and sisters in Christ, specifically my Eternal family, are just as eager to hear what the Lord is doing in my life as my natural brother and sister!  What a blessed woman I am to be adopted into such a caring, and supportive family in addition to the loving and devoted family the Lord gave me at birth.
The understanding that we are all one in Christ, loved equally by our Heavenly Father, no matter where we come from, also helped me put to words the way I already feel about my daughter.  When we find her and bring her home, She will be no less my child, no less loved, no less thought of than my boys.  When she “puts on the Ferguson last name”  she will share in the same inheritance as Turner and Calvin found in Genesis 17:7.  There our Father promises that He will be my God and the God of all 3 of my children!

Side note #1: Diana was really excited when I told her J
Side note #2: It was also a joy to tell my brother William our news as well!