Confirmed

This morning I was reading in my Bible from Ezra. It was telling how Ezra was such a great leader, bringing this huge company of Israelites back to Jerusalem. He recruited ministers, inventoried resources, inspired spiritual activity, and more. So he's planning this months-long, dangerous journey with all these people and this stuff, and--all of a sudden--he starts thinking about how he's been telling people that His God is great and His God protects His people and His God will overcome, etc., etc., etc. And he realizes that he can't ask the king for armed guards to accompany his crew on this journey. He's actually got to put feet to his faith and trust God to keep them all safe from the bandits and hazards of the trip.

As I was reading all of that, I was thinking about our own journey. In particular, I was feeling concerned about the fact that we still did not have flights confirmed for our Ethiopia trip. You see, the dates our agency originally thought we would travel had to be changed due to some delays in post-court paperwork. When those dates changed, we dropped the flights we had placed on hold and tried to get new tickets for the new times. Unfortunately all of the flights out of Ethiopia for several days around our desired departure date were completely booked. We were placed on a waitlist. For several days, there were no cancellations. On Friday, our travel agent suggested that we wait over the weekend and, if the flights were still waitlisted on Monday, we would have to change airlines. The alternative flight schedule did not have the exact same travel times available, and the tickets were priced a couple thousand dollars more.

So, as I'm reading this morning, I'm thinking, "Okay, I know how Ezra felt. He told everyone about God's protection and had to take a tough wilderness trip dependant on it. Now, I've told everyone about God's provision (especially for those concerned about the costs of international adoption) and I need to trust him to provide for our expenses--whether it's getting us on those cheaper flights or helping us to finance the more expensive ones. I know he is able."

Within minutes of business hours opening, I received the email from our travel agent acknowledging the clearing of the waitlist for the flights we desired. Our flights are confirmed, and I will say it again: If finances are the only thing holding you back from considering adoption, God has some amazing things to show you. GO FOR IT!