Transcript
Announcer: Welcome to the Adopting and Fostering Home Podcast. Whether your family has been on this journey for years or you’re just getting started, we’re here to support and encourage you along the way. Now, your hosts Lynette Ezell and Tera Melber.
Lynette Ezell: Welcome back to the Adopting and Fostering Home Podcast. I’m Lynette Ezell, joined with my sweet friend Tera Melber. Tera and I have walked through adoptions for many years and now we find ourselves working more with foster care. We’re still on the learning curve.
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: The Lord is still teaching us much, but we’ve been doing this 15 years.
Tera Melber: A long time.
Lynette Ezell: A long time, that’s right. We got just a burn in our heart to start these podcasts to just say, “Look. This is what worked for us. This is how the Lord ushered us through this. Here is where we still are.” We just want to be an encouragement to the home that is open to bringing in vulnerable children.
Tera Melber: Absolutely.
Lynette Ezell: Whether your family has been on this journey for years or you’re just getting started, we are here. Tera and I are here to help support you and we want to encourage you along the way.
Tera Melber: Absolutely.
Lynette Ezell: Tera, why don’t you introduce the topic that we’re going to discuss today?
Tera Melber: Well, today we’re going to talk about trusting God through the process. Through the process of determining whether you should adopt or foster or be entering care.
Lynette Ezell: Get your deodorant out, because it’s a lot of sweating.
Tera Melber: It is, for sure.
Lynette Ezell: Yeah, it is.
Tera Melber: There are a lot of different things that we have to trust the Lord through the process with. Everything from our finances to the hiccups that can come along the way.
Lynette Ezell: Right, right.
Tera Melber: I know that many, if they’re adopting domestically or internationally, are very concerned about the financial piece of it and it’s a difficult way to trust the Lord. I often say, we’ve had different experiences on how we ended up paying for our adoptions, but the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills and if he has called you to do it, he’s going to help you figure out the way to. You do have to count the cost ahead of time for sure.
Lynette Ezell: You do.
Tera Melber: Literally.
Lynette Ezell: It’s a lot of organization.
Tera Melber: It is.
Lynette Ezell: Because we never got a fat check in the mail.
Tera Melber: No.
Lynette Ezell: We flipped houses and so back to the … I think I’ve shared before, but to the bloody knuckle, we would …
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: Kevin worked all week. He was a senior pastor of a large church. At night on the weekends, Saturday mornings, we would work on homes, and then resell them. We were working hard to raise the money for our adoptions.
Tera Melber: Right. I just heard from a sweet couple that we have known for a long time and they were really struggling with the very last piece of getting back to South Korea to bring their child home.
Lynette Ezell: Wow.
Tera Melber: She just sat aside her pride and said, “Listen. We’ve done yard sales. We’ve sold t-shirts. We’ve worked extra jobs. We’ve done this. We’ve done that. We’re struggling with this last financial piece.” She put the need out there and the body of believers has blessed their socks off.
Lynette Ezell: They just rallied. That’s what the body is supposed to do. That’s what it is supposed to look like, yeah.
Tera Melber: They had to trust. She said, “You know, I’m having to put this out there and trust the Lord through the process,” and then just yesterday, she said, “You would not even believe how the Lord has blessed us.”
Lynette Ezell: Wow.
Tera Melber: “Not even just a little bit to where my husband gets to go back and pick up our son, but where I get to go back with him.”
Lynette Ezell: Oh, what a blessing.
Tera Melber: That wasn’t even what they were expecting, but the Lord exceedingly abundantly beyond all we could ask or imagine.
Lynette Ezell: One of my kids said the other day, they said, “Why do I have a t-shirt that says, ‘Finally home’ with South Carolina State on it?” We don’t live in South Carolina. I went, “Oh. Those t-shirts.”
Tera Melber: Yes. Right.
Lynette Ezell: If someone asked me to buy a t-shirt or do anything to help their adoption, we just feel called to always say, “Yes.”
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: To not let that plate pass in front of us.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: But to give toward that. I encourage you. Maybe you’re finished adopting, but you’re hearing these needs. Do something.
Tera Melber: Right. Do something for sure.
Lynette Ezell: Absolutely.
Tera Melber: There’s always that or even if you have foster kids in your home and you’re thinking, “This stipend that I receive from the state is really not that much when this child keeps growing and growing out of clothes.”
Lynette Ezell: Yes.
Tera Melber: To be able to trust the Lord through the process and lay your need out there and say, “These are the things that we’re needing. Is anybody available to help?”
Lynette Ezell: That’s right.
Tera Melber: There are always people who are available to help.
Lynette Ezell: You really have to open your home. That was hard for me.
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: And to accept the help.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: The blessing on the other side is amazing.
Tera Melber: Right. When you have decided to push through and you’ve decided to become a foster family or you’ve decided to adopt, we have to trust God through the process of sharing that news and how people will react.
Lynette Ezell: Yes. Yeah.
Tera Melber: Specifically, the people that we love the most.
Lynette Ezell: That was the hardest part for me.
Tera Melber: Oh, I agree.
Lynette Ezell: It really was. It really was. I remember sharing with a family member when we first stepped into the waters of adoption, it had been on our heart for years.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: I mean, years and years. Then we had biological children. It was just always on our heart, always in our mind, that we wanted to adopt one day. We didn’t even know how to get started or to begin.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: When I finally got the courage to share with a family member that I love and adore and that member looked at me, that family member looked at me and said, “Why would you do that to your family? You’re going to mess up your family.” Of course, all of that mindset has changed now, but I was devastated.
Tera Melber: Sure, because you’re expecting everybody to be as excited as they were when you found out after struggling with infertility or miscarriages …
Lynette Ezell: Yes, yes.
Tera Melber: … That when you finally got pregnant, people were thrilled for you.
Lynette Ezell: Yeah.
Tera Melber: You’re thinking, “Okay. When I share that we’re adopting,” that people would be just as excited. Some people really are and other people look at you like you’ve got three heads.
Lynette Ezell: Right. It’s a new concept to them. It’s so foreign.
Tera Melber: Right. I think that we do have to really trust the Lord through. This is not our problem. This is something that the Lord is going to have to deal with, with that specific individual, especially like for our family. We’re a trans-racial family.
Lynette Ezell: Yes.
Tera Melber: We’re multicultural. We have lots of us that look a lot different in our home.
Lynette Ezell: Right. Our family too. Yeah.
Tera Melber: People react in positive ways and people react in negative ways. We had to come to the realization that because this is not our issue with how you’re reacting to us, I’m going to protect my family, my future family, so if this is going to be a hostile situation, we’re not even going to be a part of it.
Lynette Ezell: Right.
Tera Melber: Being able to be okay with that and to pray for your family member and to be able to have conversations where you don’t feel defensive all the time.
Lynette Ezell: Right.
Tera Melber: Hopefully, the Lord will bring those people around and if they don’t come around, then recognizing that you have to be okay with that and coming to terms with that ahead of time.
Lynette Ezell: There was a fast food restaurant just close to where we used to live. About once a week or every other week, the kids and I would go there. It had a play area. At the time, we just had the four children, so I had one adopted child at the time. The first time we went, we noticed a few comments from a senior adult lady. Senior adults would be there early in the mornings and hang out there for a while and enjoy their coffee. Most were very, very kind. This one lady would say very cruel things to us. I could not comprehend it. I thought, “Oh. I must have interpreted that wrong.” About two weeks later, we’re back again, and she targets our adopted child and says some very hateful things. Now, I could have engaged her. I realize that. She was probably every bit of 80 or 85 years old.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: I’m not going to change her mindset.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: I can kill her with kindness, which the Lord laid on my heart to do and that was totally against my flesh.
Tera Melber: I thought you were going to say, “I could kill her.” I was going to say, “That probably wouldn’t do well.”
Lynette Ezell: Yeah. That was my first thought. I didn’t want my child to be …
Tera Melber: Sure.
Lynette Ezell: Because one of my older children said, “Mom. Do you hear what she is saying about our sibling?”
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: I decided to just not frequent that place. Anyway, we have seen that lady in the grocery store. I still try to be kind to her because like you said, that was her problem.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: I’m not seeking worth from her.
Tera Melber: Right, absolutely.
Lynette Ezell: But I’m also not going to let her hurt my child.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: We just opted to not go there for a while and like you said, we just had to put up … I had to put up boundaries.
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: There are certain people that I know because my husband is a senior pastor, there are certain people that seems to always say the wrong thing.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: I would put up a boundary. My child was little. That child didn’t need to hear that.
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: I’m very careful. We do that with our own lives.
Tera Melber: Absolutely.
Lynette Ezell: Not that we don’t love them. Not that we don’t want to be an encouragement to them, but sometimes you just have to put up boundaries.
Tera Melber: Right. I think trusting the Lord through putting the stake in the ground when you and your husband know that the Lord has called you to this. You put the stake in the ground and say, “No matter what Lord, I’m going to be obedient.” Immediately, when you follow in obedience, there’s going to be the enemy rising up to try to discourage …
Lynette Ezell: Absolutely, absolutely.
Tera Melber: … You and make you feel, “Is this the right decision? Did I make the right decision?”
Lynette Ezell: Yeah.
Tera Melber: Just as the Israelites had to build alters to remember what the Lord had done, we have to put stakes in the ground and say, “I know this is what I’m called to. We’re going to push forward. We may get naysayers about us, but we cannot let that distract us from obedience to the Lord.” Moses had to deal with that. We were just talking about Exodus 4 when Moses said, “Oh please Lord, I’ve never been eloquent neither recently nor in time past. Nor since you’ve spoken to your servant for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue,” and the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth or makes him mute or deaf or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?”
Lynette Ezell: Yeah, that’s right.
Tera Melber: “Now go and even I will be with you.” Even if we don’t feel fully prepared, but we know what we’ve been called to do, we push forward no matter what the rest of the world says.
Lynette Ezell: That’s exactly right.
Tera Melber: We have to trust him through it.
Lynette Ezell: Right, right. Can I trust you Lord in the process even with negative comments? Even without man’s approval?
Tera Melber: Right. One of the many things that we had to deal with and that we, even as we walk alongside foster and adoptive families, is trusting the Lord through the difficulties that will come while you’re in process. Many of those come along the way from, you thought that termination of parental rights was coming and you go to the court date and the judge gives biological mom and dad another six months to try to pull it together.
Lynette Ezell: Oh, yeah. A hard time.
Tera Melber: That’s not what you were thinking.
Lynette Ezell: Right.
Tera Melber: Or for us, we had had a medical issue that came up with one of ours at the very last minute, which extended for a few months. Then after that, they lost the paperwork in the country.
Lynette Ezell: Right.
Tera Melber: I’m thinking, “Are you kidding me?”
Lynette Ezell: Right.
Tera Melber: It’s trusting God through that process of time. He has a specific time for your child to be in your family or he has a specific child chosen for you. To be able to trust him through the process of those difficult times. Even so much as, we know many couples who have walked through domestic adoption only to find a loss of placement at the last minute.
Lynette Ezell: Yes.
Tera Melber: Though you grieve that, you have to move. You grieve it for a time and then you have to just move and say, “Okay Lord, we’re trusting you through this difficult circumstance.” It is hard.
Lynette Ezell: It is.
Tera Melber: It’s really hard.
Lynette Ezell: I was getting ready to go on a trip with my husband a year ago and I was about to go into a store, do a little shopping for the trip, and my phone rang. It was from a lawyer that I knew through another person and she began to tell me about this baby she couldn’t find a placement for and someone had given her my daughter’s name. My daughter was serving overseas at the time. They were really asking the Lord for a child and nothing was coming together and they had some heartache. She began to tell me about this child and she told and it sounded … Like, oh my goodness. Who could do this?
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: She stopped and she said, “Lynette, will your family take this child?” Now, I’m a very simple person. I come from a very simple background, hard working parents, just my window to the world was very small. The Lord gave me the strength to say, “Yes.”
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: After I said that, she said, “You will? Your family will parent this child, will take this child? None of my other families will take that child.” I said, “We absolutely will.”
Tera Melber: Right, right.
Lynette Ezell: Now, I said, “Talk to my daughter.” She had already mentioned it to them. They really felt the Lord was leading them forward. I knew if it didn’t work for them, that our family was being called to parent this child and it was hard.
Tera Melber: Right, right. It is hard.
Lynette Ezell: It was difficult and the paperwork, nothing went the way it was supposed to. It wasn’t smooth sailing. It took months longer than we thought that it would.
Tera Melber: Right. It is very hard.
Lynette Ezell: We had to trust him in the process.
Tera Melber: That’s right.
Lynette Ezell: I was a grandma at that time around.
Tera Melber: Isaiah 26:3 says, “You keep in perfect peace. His mind has stayed on you.”
Lynette Ezell: Yes.
Tera Melber: During those difficult processes, that’s what we have to do. That is the stake in the ground. That we have to keep our eyes focused on Christ, who is the author and Perfector of our faith.
Lynette Ezell: Right.
Tera Melber: Who already has the plan. Who already knows this little one is supposed to be in your family. He can keep you in perfect peace.
Lynette Ezell: Absolutely, absolutely. I would encourage people to … We’re talking about trusting the Lord through the process. For a while, it’s like I had concerns about bringing a certain child into our home. We already had a full nest. I remember when we were talking about adding the sixth child to our home, three were biological, two had been adopted, and we were talking about bringing an older child in our home. One night, I just panicked Tera. I just panicked.
The way we begin adoptions, the Lord really laid it on my heart first. I feel like I spearheaded that moving forward for our family and then people got on board. Our older daughter too was just beginning to pray about our home being expanded and that’s just how adoption started for us. That night, I looked at my husband and I said, “I don’t think I can do this again.” Now, we had already put the stake in the ground saying, “We know we’re supposed … ”
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: I was just having a weary moment.
Tera Melber: Sure.
Lynette Ezell: I remember Kevin looked at me and he said, “It’s okay. I’ve got enough faith for both of us tonight.” That carried me through.
Tera Melber: It does.
Lynette Ezell: I knew, Lord, this is what you’ve called us to.
Tera Melber: That’s right.
Lynette Ezell: I just need to trust you. My flesh is weary right now. My mind is weary. I’m a tired mama.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: I know Lord, you have called us to this right now.
Tera Melber: Right, and that you’ll give us what we need when we need it. Matthew 6:31 says, “Don’t worry. Then saying, what are we going to eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. For us, your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things, but seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you, so do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Lynette Ezell: Yes.
Tera Melber: I always try to put in the next 15 years, all the things that could possibly go wrong.
Lynette Ezell: Yes.
Tera Melber: I’m putting them into today and David will look at me and say, “The next step Tera. The next step.”
Lynette Ezell: Yeah. Don’t borrow worry.
Tera Melber: Don’t borrow worry.
Lynette Ezell: That’s right.
Tera Melber: Because he already knows.
Lynette Ezell: That’s right.
Tera Melber: He already knows.
Lynette Ezell: That’s right. Lord, can I trust you through it? If the finances are being overwhelming, can I trust you through it in the midst of man’s opinion.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: Or comments in the grocery store. I love what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 2:4. He said, “We’re not after crowd approval here.”
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: You know, once I got over that …
Tera Melber: That’s true. Yes.
Lynette Ezell: Once I got over and I was a pastor’s wife. My husband was the pastor of a large church.
Tera Melber: You were in the spotlight.
Lynette Ezell: I was in the spotlight. I was in the fishbowl. Even when we moved to a new city, our new neighborhood did not know what to do with us.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: If the Lord didn’t put us on the corner lot, like when you come in the main road.
Tera Melber: That’s right.
Lynette Ezell: If my kids were outside, every single car that came into the neighborhood saw us.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: You could just see them gazing over when we were playing outside or whatever.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: Once I got over the fact, I’m not seeking a crowd. I’m not trying to be a crowd pleaser here. I’m not seeking crowd approval.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: Lord, I just want to obey you in this.
Tera Melber: Yes, absolutely. He tells us in his word, “Give thanks to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for man for he breaks down gates of bronze and cuts through bars of iron.”
Lynette Ezell: Yes. That’s adoption paperwork right there.
Tera Melber: It is.
Lynette Ezell: Gates of bronze.
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: It is hard. It is hard work. It is a labor process.
Tera Melber: It really is. It’s the whole process of determining and deciding, is this the Lord’s call for us? Then beginning the walk through and all of the things that could cause you great fear and great nervousness and to be able to know that the Lord Jesus as he is called you to a child that he has chosen for your family, that he will break down the gates of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
Lynette Ezell: That’s right. If you have to seek help … One day I came by your house and we had changed countries.
Tera Melber: Yes, that’s right.
Lynette Ezell: You know? We jumped in it. They were quick adoptions.
Tera Melber: They were. Right.
Lynette Ezell: Which are unheard of now, but at that time, Ethiopia was moving really quickly. I didn’t understand the paperwork and you did. I just came to your house and you probably don’t even remember that, but we sat there that day.
Tera Melber: Sat there.
Lynette Ezell: We got it together.
Tera Melber: I remember where we were living.
Lynette Ezell: Yeah. We got it resolved. Sometimes you just need that help.
Tera Melber: Right, right.
Lynette Ezell: To help you walk through the rough times.
Tera Melber: That’s where the body of believers does come in and people who are going to encourage you to be obedient to your call is to be able to say on my difficult days, “I need you to be my friends who are going to uphold my hands and help me fight this fight.”
Lynette Ezell: Right. Yeah. Moses needed it and we need it.
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: You do get weary in the process, but we have to think, can I trust God through this process?
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: Right now, we have a daughter that she and her husband are going through training for foster care and it’s not going like it said on paper.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: You know?
Tera Melber: Even as grandmas walking through, the fear still rises up within you because you want things to go well for your daughter and for your son-in-law and you want to see this process not be easy. As parents, we don’t want all that pain that we know could be down the road.
Lynette Ezell: Right, right.
Tera Melber: Being able to just be able to lean into the Word and say, “I’m not going to worry.” Martin Luther once said, “You can let a bird fly over your head, but don’t let it make a nest in your hair.”
Lynette Ezell: Right. Yeah.
Tera Melber: The enemy is going to put all kinds of thoughts in your head like, “I can’t do this. We can’t afford this. If I’m not going to have family and friend support, what’s the point of all that?” He’s going to give you those thoughts, but we have to take every thought captive.
Lynette Ezell: Every thought captive, that’s right.
Tera Melber: Say, “Lord, I do this is what you’ve called me to,” because on those difficult days, we can look back at the stake in the ground and say, “I know this is what the Lord has called me to, so in confidence, I can move forward.”
Lynette Ezell: Yeah.
Tera Melber: Knowing who God is and knowing his character and trusting that his character is what he says he is.
Lynette Ezell: I remember when we were getting ready also to … We’re talking about the Ethiopian adoption. When all that paperwork was done and just about to be submitted, our biological son was in middle school at the time and he was just a great little athlete. You could put him in any spot. He just loved sports. It’s what he enjoyed doing. He’s incredibly coordinated. I began to notice within a 24 time period, something was wrong.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: He did. He did have a serious illness and it affected the left side of his body. That was hard to take in. I remember coming home from the hospital that night. Now, all of our paperwork is over. I already submitted it to Ethiopia. We’re just waiting to get a picture of our child. The warfare had begun.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: It hit our child. An illness. We had never really had that.
Tera Melber: Right.
Lynette Ezell: We’ve had strep throat and that sort of thing.
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: But this was serious.
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: So serious that med students were walking in his hospital room and videoing him on their phone because they had never seen it before.
Tera Melber: I remember that.
Lynette Ezell: I remember coming down the big hill to our neighborhood that night. Kevin was in the hospital with our son, staying with him. We had no answers. We didn’t know what was going to happen. He couldn’t even control the left side of his body at the time. I remember just crying in my old SUV. I was driving down that hill and I just said, “Lord, we’re going to obey you in this. We’re going to keep moving forward.”
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: “Because you’ve put it upon our heart and we know that Satan has brought an attack on our home, there’s been an illness that has hit our child. We know he’s trying to distract us, but we’re going to keep moving forward with you Lord, whatever that looks like.”
Tera Melber: Right. In my mind Lynette, I often go back to this whole process of life. Whatever the Lord has called you to, in obedience, to do whatever it is, whether it’s what we’re talking about today with adoption or foster care. No matter what. Moving to the mission field somewhere in the United States in a city that has very few believers, moving overseas. Whatever it is the Lord has called you to do. In obedience, walking through life. It’s all a sanctifying process for us. It’s the Lord molding and shaping us into the likeness of his son.
Whatever it is the Lord has called you to, obedience is the answer. It’s how we show the Lord that we love him. It’s how we know more about who he is. He is molding us and making us into the likeness of his son. The enemy is going to throw flaming arrows and the Lord is going to say, “No. They are mine. They may have to walk through difficulty and it may be super hard and you may not ever get the answers or understand on this side of glory … ”
Lynette Ezell: That’s right.
Tera Melber: “… Why I’m doing these things. It is for a purpose that is unlike anything you could have ever imagined.”
Lynette Ezell: That’s right. Hearing Tera and I’s heart today, you can trust the Lord …
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: … With the tough financial part of adoption. You can trust the Lord. It’s going to take some creativity, but he will open doors. He will navigate that for you as you seek him daily. Luke 9:23, “Those who want to follow me must deny themselves, take up their cross daily.”
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: I always say he added that ‘daily’ word for me and follow me. It is a daily. My feet hit the floor that morning, that we can trust him financially. We can trust him through criticism from other people.
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: We can trust him with just the concerns within our family, concerns our bio-kids may have, or struggles that our bio-kids may face.
Tera Melber: We can trust him through all the difficulties that come through the process or the things that we might face after they come home. Not to sound like Debbie Downers, because there are lots of victories, and lots of wonderful glorious things …
Lynette Ezell: Yes. So many. Yes.
Tera Melber: … That happen. Would not trade any of this for anything, but I think it’s good for us to be able to say out loud, “When we have struggles, it’s okay.”
Lynette Ezell: It’s okay.
Tera Melber: You’re not the only one.
Lynette Ezell: Right.
Tera Melber: You’re not alone. We can get through this together.
Lynette Ezell: That’s right, that’s right. You know, in Proverbs 3, the writer of Proverbs said, “My son. Don’t forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commands, and they will bring you many days of full life and wellbeing.” Then we know the passage well in verses 5 and 6 out of Proverbs 3, but, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.” Don’t rely on your own thoughts. Your own understanding. Think about him in all your ways. With every step in that adoption or foster process. I mean, every step. Take it to the Lord.
Tera Melber: Yes.
Lynette Ezell: Every concern. Lord, I’m struggling with the social worker or Lord, I’m struggling with this home study or Lord, my son is struggling. My biological child is struggling or Lord, my husband is wanting us to pull back, whatever. Take all that to him and he tells us, this is truth, this is in his Word. Think about him in all your ways, acknowledge him, he’ll guide you on the right path.
Tera Melber: That’s right, exactly. I often say … When we were in the Smokey Mountains one time and my whole family likes to hike beyond really high places.
Lynette Ezell: I don’t understand hiking. It’s like walking. Whatever.
Tera Melber: I like to hike, but I don’t like the super high places because I’m petrified of heights. We were walking along this path and we had lots of our kids and they were all small. We were using the analogy of, your Word is a lamp into my feet and a light into my past.
Lynette Ezell: Yes. One step at a time.
Tera Melber: I asked the kids, “If it was dark out here and we had one tiny little flashlight, we could see one step in front of us.”
Lynette Ezell: Step.
Tera Melber: Now, what we wouldn’t know is that to our left is safety and to our right is a plummeting death.
Lynette Ezell: Yeah.
Tera Melber: The Lord says, “I’m going to give you a lamp into my feet and a light into my path.” One step at a time is all I’m going to let you see. The rest of the view, you’ll get to see when you get to the top. One step at a time, trust me with where I’m taking you. I know what the pitfalls are. I know what the safety is.
Lynette Ezell: Right.
Tera Melber: When you get to the top and you see the view and you see all that I’ve woven together to make this happen, you’re going to know me more, you’re going to understand me more, and you’re going to be more into the likeness of my son, which is his whole purpose.
Lynette Ezell: Right.
Tera Melber: For his glory alone.
Lynette Ezell: What I hear you saying is, we can trust him from the beginning to the end.
Tera Melber: Yes, absolutely.
Lynette Ezell: Absolutely. Every step of that fostering process, every step of the adoption process, and all the in-between until the Lord takes us home, we can trust him with all of it.
Tera Melber: Yes. Absolutely.
Lynette Ezell: Well, you’ve been listening to the Adopting and Foster Home. This is a resource of the North American Mission Board. For more information about today’s podcast or questions, other relevant resources, just visit namb.net/sendrelief. Thank you so much for joining us today. We look forward to talking to you again.
Speaker 1: You have been listening to the Adopting and Fostering Home, a resource of the North American Mission Board. For more information about today’s podcast and other relevant resources, visit namb.net/sendrelief.
