So many of you have been praying with us that God would move mountains in our situation and allow us to bring Alethia home. You’ve seen our tweets, facebook updates, etc. asking for a miracle. But, in a case like this, discussions and questions about God’s sovereignty always seem to arise. The question was posed to me last night over dinner, “How does God’s sovereignty play into this? What if He doesn’t allow you to bring her home?” And I think that’s a really fair question. What if it was God’s will all along for us simply to endure this as a means of growth or brokenness or for some other reason that we may not understand? What if we don’t know the full reason until years from now? As hard as these questions are to wrestle with, I think it’s healthy. My brother, Jacob, was posed this same question by a friend on facebook. He was basically asking how we know that it really is the will of God for us to bring Alethia home. I thought his response was worthy of a blog post.
Hey man,
I appreciate your questions and concern. When we’re trying to discern what the will of God is, we have to first look at the bigger picture. We have to look at the character of God and his sovereign will (His general will). We believe God has a heart for adoption. Scripture encourages us to care for the widows and orphans. Spiritually, we were all once orphans and God adopted us into his family. When called by God, why would we not respond by doing for someone else what he has already done for us? So biblically speaking, it’s God’s will for orphans to be adopted. It’s a beautiful picture of the Gospel. But it seems that your question is about God’s will in this specific situation. In actuality we don’t KNOW that it’s God’s will. But we do know that God has guided their steps to adopt this girl for the last 3 years. He has allowed everything to fall into place. So could it be that God would bring them this far only to tell them that they can never bring this girl into their family? Yes, that’s possible. We don’t KNOW what God is doing. The bottom line is that we should desire whatever is going to bring the most glory to God. Will it bring God glory to see a father fighting for this 3 year old girl that he loves. Moving his family to Africa, and putting everything on the line, just to save this girl from a life of aids and poverty? To finally see him bring his daughter home after so much difficulty? Yes, this could bring God much glory. However, it could also bring glory to God to see a family fail at adopting this girl and still praising God for His faithfulness and sovereignty. Yes, that could also bring God much glory. So when we pray, we pray for God’s heart to be our heart. For God’s desire to be our desire. And we ask that bringing home this poverty-stricken lonely orphan would be what gives HIM THE MOST GLORY. We hope that is what the will of God is. So you’re correct in stating that people cannot say for absolute certainly that this is God’s will. It could be possible that this girl will never be adopted, and left to grow up in an African orphanage until she turns 18. It’s easy for me to say that we will rejoice in God’s faithfulness no matter what the outcome is. I hope that will be true. I pray that God will prepare us for that day.
Jacob, that’s my prayer too–that God will prepare me and Tasha for that day, whatever that day looks like. And at the end of the day, I pray that I will be able to have an attitude of gratefulness that God deemed us worthy to bear this, believing unshakingly that His faithfulness never wavers and that He will never give us more than we can handle.
Romans 8:18, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.
Great post and reminds me of Matt 26:39, “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.”
Praying for God to be glorified!
Heard!! Heard, y’all!
Man, the Via family has an inordinate amount of wisdom. Gosh, your parents must be so proud.
Josh, this is beautiful. Your brother is absolutely correct. I pray that you will remain strong as you continue to fight for your little girl. Much love to you all!
so true…all of it. praying for god’s heart to be yours and ours…may God continue to give you peace and comfort in the coming days and weeks!
This is so good to hear! As my husband and I are in the beginning stages of adopting our first child from Uganda I must say that what you guys are going through has completely rocked my world. All sorts of fears have surfaced in the last few days, fear completely from the enemy. Fear about this exact situation happening to us, fear about pursuing a child for so long only to find out that there’s a possibility that he or she may not be a part of our family. My amazing husband though, as I’ve read him every post over the last few weeks has said over and over (as I’m sobbing) that we can’t dwell on the negative. We know that God has called us to adopt, bottom line, just as He has with you guys. He’ll handle it from there. He’ll take care of it all, we just need to have faith that He has it under control. We don’t know what the outcome will be, He doesn’t say, “if you say yes to adoption I will make sure you are able to bring home a child”. He just asks us to say yes. Thank you for pointing that out, He’s just asking us to say yes.
While I may not understand the adoption process, I do understand trusting the Lord to fulfill the desires of your heart.
When I think about the day Alexandra went home, I didn’t understand. While I understand now it was for his glory. It still hurts. I am thankful for the 10 years he gave me with my precious girl! I am thankful that he trusted me to be her mom for the time I had.
I am sure if God’s plan is not for Alethia to come home to you; That you have made a HUGE impact not only in her life, but in the lives of so many others to show his glory!
I am sure it will hurt as it hurt to come home now without her. But you are showing God’s glory with every step you take!
You may never know the impact you have had on so many lives. Know that you are some of God’s greatest examples!! We love you!! We count ourselves blessed to have been invited into your lives!
Hi Josh, I really hope you get this. I’m in Uganda now – have been since October 2. After many setbacks we finally had our visa interview today. I’m devasted to say, but we are now in the same boat that your family is in. Because we don’t meet the “legal” definition of abandoned (even though our daughter’s parent’s left her with an aunt 5 years ago, and the aunt left her with a church 1 year ago), we were told today that our case was going to be sent to Nairobi. My husband had to return home so I’ve been here for almost 8 weeks by myself. I’m trying to get help from home, but I’m so at the end of myself I don’t even know where to begin here. If you have any suggestions for me, I’d be eternally grateful. My Ugandan phone number is 079 207 8998. I understand if you are unable to talk. I know that nothing here is easy and just getting through your own day is almost impossible some days so please do not feel obligated. I’m trusting that God has a plan in this. I just wish I knew what it was. Thanks for listening.
I am so grateful that a friend shared your post with me today. We recently “lost” our girls in Ethiopia, and it is just a comfort to know that other families know what this fear, pain, and hurt is like. It is so, so hard… harder than most people can even imagine.. oftentimes even unbearable. Some days, I have to repeat to myself all day that He knows what I don’t.