What A Day!

Today Matt and I decided to take the day off and get some much needed adoption requirements done and out of the way. We thought taking one whole day to run errands around town was good and less stressful idea. And boy let me tell you...it was an awesome decision. God really blessed our day.

It began with picking up some yard sale items from a family friend. This friend said they just had a "few items" which later turned into a TON of awesome stuff! We brought my tiny toyota echo over there and with one look at the amount of things she had to donate, we became a little worried. There was no way it was all going to fit in my car. Let me tell you, God never ceases to amaze me. With my engineer of a husband, we meticulously crammed every last thing into every nook and cranny of my little car. It all fit! We were all pretty much amazed. God is good.

After that, we took a nice drive over to the court houses to get finger printed. I had a feeling that the places we went today were going to be miserable. You know, the court houses, DMV, etc. They aren't exactly what you think of as joyful places to be. But TODAY, they were! We barely had to wait in lines and everyone that we told we were adopting all said things like, "So are you excited?!", "Congratulations!", and "So are you getting a boy or a girl?".  From the bank teller to the DMV lady to the finger printing lady...ALL made our day so exciting and joyful! God could not have covered this day more....well, actually He did cover it more...

You see, our adoption agency has us complete three outreach requirements. This means that we are to tell three people or organizations about Gladney and about adoption. They recommended people like pastors, counselors and they require one obgyn. I had completed two of the three requirements by giving information to our pastor as well as our youth minister at our parish who happens to be our brother. We thought those were good people to give this information to since our pastor and youth and young adult minister would be in close connection with individuals who could end up with an unplanned pregnancy. This way, they would have resources to offer them about adoption. My last requirement was to give information to an obgyn. I actually haven't been to a local gynecologist for a couple of years because I have been seeing our Catholic doctor in Pennsylvania and getting my yearly exams there. So I had the choice to either google search a nearby obgyn and drop by with the information there or do what my heart knew God wanted me to do.

I felt strongly for weeks to take the information to Planned Parenthood, the largest abortion provider in the United States. Something like over half of Planned Parenthood's income comes from abortions. Needless to say, adoption is not a high priority for them. They make their money from killing babies. We felt strongly that we were to go to Planned Parenthood and share with them that we're a young couple wanting and willing to adopt and that there are reputable agencies available to women with unplanned pregnancies. We wanted to be a witness to the staff and to the men and women in the waiting room that abortion is not necessary and that there are so many couples willing to adopt. As we arrived to Planned Parenthood, we were greeted, as we knew we would be, by some amazing prayer warriors with the Forty Days for Life campaign. They are powerful praying people who come out daily to pray for those entering and leaving the clinic. They are also there to talk to any birth mom or father who need someone to talk to. As we parked, one of the prayer warriors offered to give us brochures (thinking we were a couple heading in for an abortion) but when we told them what we were doing, they were so excited for us to be witnessing in this way. They did, however, warn us that we might not be allowed in. Planned Parenthood had apparently turned down several people earlier today for various reasons. If you've ever been to Planned Parenthood, it's a pretty creepy place, if I do say so myself. They have the place on high security. Straight up, lock down. You have to be buzzed in on both the outside door but also to the inside door into the waiting room. I've prayed there before but have never tried to enter.

So we blessed ourselves with some holy water and marched into, what felt spiritually like, a war zone. I just knew that there was a battle going on for these women and children in the spirit world, not to mention in our country right now. We prayed as we walked up to the clinic doors. I told the lady over the intercom that we were a married couple trying to fulfill outreach requirements for our adoption agency and that we had information to give them on our agency. Who knows why but by the grace of God, the lady on the intercom actually allowed us in. Had to be the Holy Spirit. We entered and spoke with the nurse in the waiting room where several patients could hear, hoping the word adoption would play over and over in their minds like a song they couldn't get out of their heads. The nurse seemed extremely on guard at first, not sure what we were there to say. But we were pleasant and godly and told her about the agency and our plans to adopt through them. We told the lady that we felt like this would be a good place to give this information to, seeing as how they come across so many women with unplanned pregnancies. We also shared with her that our agency would be willing to send a representative there to educate their staff on adoption and Gladney in order for Planned Parenthood to truly be able to referral people to adoption. We finished our conversation and handed over the brochures and information to the nurse and headed out on our way. God covered the meeting from top to bottom. Pray the Holy Spirit would do some work in the life of the nurse, Jessica, we spoke to as well as those ten or so people sitting in the waiting room, listening.

We'll never be sure of the implications of our words at Planned Parenthood today. But we do know that when God tells us to act, we act...and God handles the rest. He has shown us this over and over again through this adoption journey. Pray, pray, pray for more praying people to act on the Holy Spirit induced urge to head out to Planned Parenthood to pray and be a witness to life. Pray for those men and women entering for abortions and leaving from abortions. Pray that they would somehow have the heart of a mother and of a father and care more for their child's needs than their own. Pray for healing in the hearts of women who have already had abortions. Pray for the doctor's, nurses and all the workers at Planned Parenthood, that their hearts would be opened to the Holy Spirit and His truth about life. Pray for conversions and the boldness to act. Pray for our nation and our future President and administration to see life that life begins at conception and to put an end to the evils of abortion.

Pray.