Many Are the Plans in the Mind of Man...by Jenna Lorrick

Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.  Proverbs 19:9

I had no idea that it would take 2 ½ years to get from starting our adoption paperwork to here…

The airport homecoming on Thanksgiving evening 2012…finally a family of 6!

For 2 ½ years I waited to be the mommy to a sweet little girl from Uganda that I knew the Lord had chosen for us.  During those years our family was serving at a wonderful church where my husband was pastor.  Those precious saints came along side us and loved our sweet girl from a far right just like we did.  They helped us raise funds, they prayed for us, and rejoiced with us when we finally got that first picture.  I was part of the most wonderful group of godly women who were always there to help or encourage me.  I had it all planned out…what it would be like to bring our new baby girl home.  We would have friends and family and our precious church to support us and help us as we adjusted to being a family of 6.   I had a room planned and friends to help me decorate it.  After all we had been waiting for over 2 years…plenty of time to plan every last detail.

But God…usually those are some of my favorite words. 

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins…BUT GOD being rich in mercy…made us alive together with Christ. Eph 2:1-5

However, this time the “But God” meant totally abandoning my plans and following Him so that His purposes would stand.

The week before we got that first picture of our sweet Kenzi we learned that God was calling my husband to a totally new role in ministry.  Instead of pastoring full time God was calling my husband to lead the evangelism department for our state convention.  He was charged with the task reaching and helping churches reach our entire state for Christ.  We knew that it was the Lord’s calling and we willing obeyed. 

We moved into a new home in a new city 8 days before we boarded a plane to Uganda to pick up Kenzi.  6 weeks later I landed back in America with a new baby in a new house in a new town without friends or family near by and without the support system of a church I was no longer the pastor’s wife or the bible study teacher.  Every part of my life was new and unfamiliar.  I struggled to find my place.  I struggled to learn how to balance 4 kids instead of 3.  I struggled through the first months of learning to bond with our new daughter.  I struggled as we visited churches and I was “the new girl”.  I struggled to find a new routine for our family.  But mostly I struggled with the Lord.  I didn’t understand His timing.  I didn’t understand why we couldn’t have brought our sweet girl home when we were still where everything was familiar, where I had it all figured out.  Why did this have to so hard?

And then I heard Him whisper to my heart one day as I carried yet another toy up the stairs…”don’t you know my timing is perfect?  Don’t you know I did it just like this so you would trust me and only me?”

Suddenly I realized that He is truly the God who makes beauty out of ashes.  It was through my

struggles that He has been drawing me to Him.  He has been teaching me of my great need for Him…that when all of my comforts, roles, and familiar things are gone He is still God and still the only one who can supply all of my needs.

There are still struggles.  There are still days when I miss the familiar.  Things just don’t always go the way we plan but I am finding more and more that while my plans maybe many and may seem great it is His purpose that is the most important.  My willingness to surrender to His plan even when it is not the way I would have written the story is so key to Him showing up and working big.