Identity

I will be a Father to you, and you will be sons and daughters to Me, says the Lord Almighty. 

2 Corinthians 6:18

I am so excited

What's all the hoopla over DNA anyway? 

What's in a 1/4 teaspoon of spit I wonder?

Can it unlock the history of who I am? 

This is important stuff! 

At least It's sealed up nicely 

( 'spittle' technically )

I'm a 7th grade para educator.

I have 4 hours a day of science.  

I'm getting good at Biology. 

DNA is the current topic.

It's fascinating.  

If I came 

from a line of scholars I would be a Geneticist for sure by now.  

Maybe I do come from a line of Scholars and just don't know it yet!

Too much fun dreaming up where my roots are from.

My mom was adopted from Germany.  Her bio Father a soldier from Pennsylvania with 5 kids already.  Where are all my cousins?  

My dad's mom was believed to have American Indian ancestry.  Maybe adopted herself.  His dad arrived on a boat from Sweden in the early 1900's...

What stories are waiting for me to discover?  

I am so excited 

to know more about those that came before me.  American history mixed with European history.  I wonder if finding stories in the Ancestry database will help with the unsettled feelings I have.  Or maybe I have these feeling because this rock is not my home.  Either way I am excited.  They said 6-8 weeks.  Praying it's more like 3 weeks.  

I was glad to have this distraction today.  

Our Foster kiddo Z was supposed to arrive at our home by 5pm.  At 6:30 I contacted her social worker and found out they messed up on transportation again.  (Just like they did last weekend, Easter.)

I called her and she was devastated.  She has been in treatment for 6 weeks now.  She was placed 3.5 hours away for treatment.  6-7 hours round trip.  We have visited once.  

Would you pray for her this week?  

She will act out probably due to the huge disappointment 2 weeks in a row, and will be punished for her behaviors.  A visit with with mom is coming soon, one of the last she'll probably have for a long long time.  She suffers after these visits.  Her little sister went home, court says thats ok.  Her older teenage sister in foster care just had a baby and wants nothing to do with her and her teenage brother in care has been moved again.  

Adoption looms, she missed an Easter Egg hunt and the movies tonight with Ava and friends.  She is missing out on real relationships and real attachments.  It is really difficult to trust the system.  Believing the best is my policy, and I believe that goes day to day for sure.  But, this feels like Z is just a number.  Just a name on a page that gets forgotten.  Next Thursday I will drive 7 hours round trip to pick her up if they cannot arrange transportation.  They will compensate me for my expenses, but I haven't been compensated for miles in 6 months.  Maybe it will come.  

She told me tonight she will never again believe she gets to leave until it is actually happening. I don't blame her.  

She mentioned self harm.  Jeesh.  Tough conversations.  

But then beacons of hope.  She prayed healing over a 'client' in the facility.  And they both think it worked.  She has done this more than once. Our weekly family therapy is going well.  She is realizing we are committed to her and she is responding.   

  

She feels like her identity is being lost there.  

So much negativity swirling around her at all times.  I think she's brilliant and God willing will pull out of this and thrive.  

God willing, Dusty and I can point her to the One that will restore her lost sense of Identity.  We cannot fix her, but we can equip her for an intentional life spent walking with a King. She is a princess.  A warrior princess.  This is her true identity.  It is my identity.  It is your identity.  

Open your eyes, look towards the Castle.  There's a man sitting on a throne waiting to crown those that we offer the Kingdom up to.  

Isaiah 43:6

"I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring My sons from afar And My daughters from the ends of the earth"

  

Who do you think brings the far off daughter to the Father? 

Our nation is over flowing with abundance.  The Gospel is to thank.    Weather or not we recognize it, it is true that God calls us to be a blessing.  Think about the implications of that statement. It's more than volunteering at your kids 4th grade halloween party at school, or serving at the food bank monthly.  So much more can be done if we ask God to remove the pillar of fear between us and our God given ability to be blessing.  

We are blessed to be a blessing. 

Be a blessing, welcome home a child that needs reconciled to their Father. HE is so good and kind, he will guide you though the process.  HE will take away the walls of fear.  Just ask him to.  Ask for a revelation about how to meet the needs of a fatherless child in your community.  I can promise you a deeper gift in return than you could ever imagine.  It's for real. Quite literally He blesses those that take care of the oppressed and orphaned. 

If your desperate to feel a touch from God, confused about your direction in life...serve God.  These are my peeps, Ember hope.  I know people that God favors and uses as tools to bring change and training. Let love motivate you to cast out fear and take a step today.