Let’s see where I left off….

Over the next weeks I kept hearing the familiar word….an Elijah is coming, simultaneously with Jubilee.

I confess that I was excited but I was also perplexed. Where would our Elijah come from?

About this time we got a new rooster. I always name our roosters after Old Testament Prophets – we had both an Ezra and Nehemiah in Virginia. But I didn’t name this new rooster since I wasn’t convinced Dw was going to let me keep him and then when he finally gave me the thumbs up I had to spend a bit of time to think about what to name him.

The days quickly were passing and I was still hearing daily, “Elijah is coming – simultaneously with Jubilee” and over and over I would say, “Yup! The best days of my life are ahead of me!” I still had not mentioned to Dw about the word. There is something really stinkin fun to me to just keep words the Lord has shared with me tucked away in my heart. It just makes it like this little secret between Almighty God and me – how much He loves us all – desperately longing to tell us tidbits of special things…

Actually, as I am typing this I realize that there is a likelihood that some of my bloggy buddies might not be used to hearing God speak and wonder about it all. But it is clear in scripture that God does indeed speak to His children (“my sheep hear my voice and they know me”) – He longs to have that kind of relationship with you – the upclose and personal kind, where He is talking; we are listening; He is telling us secrets; we are listening more; He keeps speaking; we act on His words…etc.

There are lots of ways that God does speak to each of us (His word, dreams, His voice, through other Christ-followers, etc…). So if you haven’t understood how to hear God speak, then drop me an email and I will put you in touch with some good resources on how to understand how to do this. Infact this week-end I am teaching a workshop entitled “How to Hear God Speak” at a Prophetic Conference. We will be taping the sessions. If you are interested in a CD after, just drop me an email ….my addy is listed on the sidebar…. =) Okay, after this brief pause for station identification – does anyone else remember hearing that on your TV during a show when you were a kid, “And now we pause for Station Identification” and you would be sitting there going, “hurry up!! Enough already!! Will you just get back to my show???”…..ummmm, okay, maybe not, since I am pretty much probably the oldest blogger lady out there…. okay, eck-ummm *clearing throat* on with this Yippee Jesus story…..

So days passed and we busily prepared for Dw and Emma to go to Africa. We knew that they would be spending time in orphanages there and down deep I knew Dw was kind of scouting the territory for future adoptions….and call me crazy BUT it just never crossed my mind that he would meet our Elijah on this trip. (See God had a little surprise for me too!)

On June 30th Dw and Emma loaded the truck and hastily hurried toward the door to drive to Albuquerque where their flight for Africa was leaving from. Literally as he was walking out the door he turned to me and said, “Name that rooster will you! How about Elijah?” I said, “Dwight! No way! That’s our next son’s name!” He laughed and said, “Okay, well just name him then??!?!”

It took Emma and Dw three days to get to Africa, with an overnight layover in Dubai. On the morning of the July 2nd I found out that we had verbal pre-approval from Ch*na for our little Jubilee. I could not wait for them to call me from Africa so I could tell them the good news.
When they did call we joyfully celebrated thousands of miles apart over the phone. What a wonderful thing to rejoice about! Miss Jubilee is coming home!!

We had no idea how the phone/computer access would be and how often we would be able to touch base. The thing that I was looking forward to hearing the most was what the orphanages were like.

We have served as a family at an orphanage in Mexico on several occasions and our entire family loves working in them. So it was driving me crazy waiting to hear if they had been to an orphanage. Emma has dreamed since she was probably 7 years old of one day living in Africa while serving at an orphanage there as a missionary. Her prayer has been, “God, please let me grow up and be a missionary in Africa and work with the orphans there.” So this trip was monumental…it was the fulfillment of our little girl’s prayer and would be the beginning of her dream…so what exactly would she think of FINALLY working in an African Orphanage? Would her heart leap within her?? I just wanted them to call and tell me!!

The very next day, July 3rd they called again. This time my sweet hubby was so excited, I could hear it in his voice the moment I heard him. I asked him, “Have you been to an orphanage yet?” He could hardly contain himself! He said, “Oh Linny! We’ve been to an orphanage and there is this little boy I want to bring him home. I’m not kidding! I want him – I have fallen in love with him….”

I was so excited as I knew that Dw was not just merely talking, but he was serious! I said, “What’s his name?” Which in retrospect was something really funny to ask, in my opinion. I didn’t even ask how old he was! Dw said, “His name is Elijah!” To which I gasped! I could hardly talk fast enough. I told Dw about God’s word spoken months before to me and how He had continued to impress on me that we had an Elijah coming – simultaneously with Jubilee!

Dw’s side of the story: I was sitting there and all these little ones crawling all over me and then this sweet little guy just climbed up and plopped down. When he didn’t get up but just nestled in I had turned to the workers and said, “What’s this little guy’s name?” The workers said, “Elijah!” My eyes popped out of my head because of the conversation (about the rooster) that I had had with Linny just before I walked out the door to go to Africa!

Dw went on to say, “I’m not kidding Linny, I want him. I want to go talk to an attorney about how to bring him home!” My mouth dropped open! He was VERY serious! About that time I asked him how old he was. He was born at the end of January in 2007, making him 17 months old. I was just so excited! I could hardly contain myself between giggling and shock!

As silly as it sounds, it really, truly hadn’t even remotely crossed my mind that Dw was going to find our Elijah on his trip to Africa. Which, crazy or not, it made for such a wonderful surprise to me! From that moment on, I knew that Dw had found our Elijah and now we just had to figure out how to bring him home.

I confess that I am crying as I type this. How faithful our gracious God is! He places the lonely in families and He makes the barren woman to be the joyful mother of children. But wait! The story gets even better!! Promise – It’s an true “gasper”!! OH – Yippeee Jesus!!