February 15, 2013 - Speaking at Church

Below is what we spoke to the congregation of our church right before the worship leader lead the church in God is Able.

This is our story in a very short 5 minutes or so.

Good morning!

Matt - Introductions – My name is Matt. This is my wife Lindsay. And this is our son Grayson, who traveled all the way from Taiwan to be with us today.

Lindsay - God has blessed our family through adoption and we just wanted to share a little bit of it with you. We began our adoption journey about a year and a half ago. God led us through prayer and a connection from Dave and Sherree Empson to an orphanage in Taiwan called The Home of God’s Love. There were a lot of ups and downs through the process but we were finally matched with a baby boy on August 1^st. At the time, we were foster parenting a little baby girl named Kennedy. She had been with us for a month and the judge had finally decided on a placement for her permanently. July 31^st was the last day that she was scheduled to be with us. We got the call from the orphanage at midnight of July 31^st. Little did we know, that was the first of many miracles that were yet to come.

Matt – Lindsay, my mother-in-law, Leslie, and I traveled to Taiwan during the first week of November to meet Grayson and to attend our court date with the Taiwanese judge. Our appointment with the judge went well and everything was on schedule to be completed in 6-8 weeks. We decided that it would be best for Lindsay to stay in Taiwan to build a relationship with Grayson and Leslie and I would return home.

Lindsay – During my stay there, I got to be with Grayson every day and earn my keep by helping take care of the other 23 babies. Our case seemed to be taking a turn for the worse every week. Our paperwork was lost in the mail twice and adoption reports were not being turned in which stalled our case. Even though things seemed grim, we were still trusting in God’s plan and His timing. During the process, I was admitted into the country on a 90 day visa and our time was running out. Two weeks before my visa ran out, there was still no movement on our case and I had been there two and a half months. I was making plans to fly to Hong Kong and back to Taiwan to renew my visa, but in the back of my mind, I knew that God was still able to complete our adoption before my 90 days were up if he chose to.

Matt – While Lindsay was trying to figure out the next move, the judge would not give us any information on our case or when it would pass through. During this time, we understood that this was more than just paperwork being passed around. It was spiritual warfare at its finest. Two sides pitted against each other trying to come out on top. As these two sides clashed, God’s side began to take the upper hand through the power of prayer and the love shown by other believers towards our family. It came in the form of meals, donations, prayers, emails, facebook posts, twitter tweets, prayer circles, fasting, cards, letters, hugs, hope, tears, and so much more.

Lindsay - Through a strange turn of events, we received our first of two decrees on a Thursday and our spirits were lifted. However, our adoption would have to be completed in exactly one week, which has never happened under the new adoption laws in Taiwan. We soon found out that our final decree should have come on that Monday, but it did not. We continued to pray for mountains to move. We were told the latest we could receive that final decree would be Tuesday morning in order to complete the adoption and me be out of the country in time.  Tuesday morning came and went  - there was no word.  About 3:20pm the phone rang.  It was the court clerk calling to say they have our final decree!  Everyone started jumping up and down and running around in order to get it picked up by 4:00pm!  Yes, we had 40 minutes to gather all the paperwork, get ourselves presentable, and drive 20 minutes to the court house.  After getting ready to leave we realized there was no one to drive us there as everyone in the office was out running errands, etc.  When all of the sudden Anna (a lady who works there) walks in the door!  We yelled for her to get the car!  We arrived at the courthouse at 3:55pm – signed for the final decree and walked out by 4:00pm – Another mountain moved.  From the courthouse we went to the household registration office in a neighboring town.  They were closing for the day at 5:00pm and their computers would automatically shut down at that time.  We walked out of the office with the next set of paperwork in our hands at 4:58pm. 

The next few days we were praying hard for God to wrap this all up in 3 days.  There was much to be done and completed.  One really awesome thing was that we needed a meeting at the American Consulate office in order to complete the adoption.  Of course they were having “in-service” training and would be closed on that Thursday and Friday.  We called their office and they agreed they would take time out of their training day to complete our adoption for us!  This had never been done as well.  My VISA would expire in 90 days.  Our adoption was completed on day #89 and we departed from Taiwan on day #90. 

Throughout our adoption we clung to the song, “God is Able”.  That simple phrase got us through some of the hardest moments of our lives this past year and a half.  God blessed us with so many things including our precious Grayson.  Every time we heard this song, it would encourage us to keep the faith and know that God WAS and IS able. 

We would like to thank you all church family for every prayer lifted up for our families the past 3 months.  It has been very humbling to be on the receiving end of your support and love.  If there is one thing we have learned it’s that, even when God is silent, he is still God and he is always able.  

Here's the song God is Able performed by Hillsong.