If you aren't willing to put yourself in "this is crazy" situations, you'll never experience "this is awesome" moments - The Circle Maker
I love this quote. It reminds me of our adoption, it reminds me of our move... all of those times where it felt crazy and I'm sure some people probably thought we were crazy. "So you're flying to Russia three times and you already have three kids and you could put one or two of them through college with the cost of one international adoption?" Crazy. "So you're moving to California and leaving your entire family and you don't know anybody down there?" Crazy. But we've learned that when you fully put your trust in God and take a leap of faith toward what you believe He is calling you to do, God always shows up. Logic might be screaming no, but faith is whispering yes.
I always had this picture of what Jacob's baptism day would look like. All of our family and friends would be gathered together. Adam would baptize Jacob. I would have months in advance to plan out all of the details. That was the problem though, it was MY plan... how I wanted it to go. Not surprisingly, God had a different plan.
Jacob has always had this incredible child-like faith that I am in awe of. He would pray, even on his own, and knew God was going to take care of him. He has had these awesome dreams, one about Ella coming home all wrapped up as a Christmas present... long before we even knew she would be coming home on Christmas Eve. Amazing. One (on the night before Easter) where he saw an angel, telling him not to be afraid. Amazing. We were thinking about having him baptized at our church in Washington right before we moved... but doors seemed to be closing and the timing just didn't feel right. So we waited.
Over the next year, Jacob's faith developed even more. He asked lots of questions and Adam and I stayed up many nights, laying beside him and talking about God. We found a church and there were a few days set aside throughout the year for baptisms, but they never seemed to work out with Adam's schedule. (Events like this are really hard to plan when your husband is almost always on call!) We knew there would be an opportunity to have Jacob baptized on May 25th, but again, Adam was on call. Even though I had dismissed it as a possibility, Adam felt God pressing him that Jacob was ready. To trust Him with his schedule. That everything would work out.
When Adam came to me with this, it was May 24th. Thoughts and questions flooded my head. You can't just sign up for a baptism the day before, can you? This is crazy. Our family isn't here to watch him. I don't have time to plan a party. I'm not really sure how baptism even works at our church yet. I felt this sense of peace though, as if God was whispering, "Trust me." After all, people aren't planning out baptisms in the bible, right? Believe and be baptized... and people were just baptized right there on the spot. So we emailed our church on Saturday afternoon. When NOBODY is there. Crazy. They called us back though, at ten o'clock at night. They told us what to wear, what to bring, asked us a few questions about Jacob, and we were ready to go. Fear and doubt were trying to creep in... everything was all lined up now, but what if Adam gets called and misses the baptism? What if we tell all of our family and friends and it doesn't end up happening? Logic was screaming no, faith was whispering yes.
Praise God, our church streams everything live so my mom and Adam's parents were able to watch Jacob get baptized from afar. It was an awesome day. That morning, we all held hands in our living room and one at a time we prayed for Jacob, even little Ella. (The prayer of a little child, it melts my heart every. time!) While Jacob was getting baptized, my favorite worship song, Oceans, was playing. We took Jacob out to lunch and later that night, had a campfire and s'mores with some incredible friends. God's plans always work out so much better than mine.
If you aren't willing to put yourself in "this is crazy" situations, you'll never experience "this is awesome moments.
