I had the immense pleasure to spend a few hours with some fellow adoptive moms on Friday. What fun to share our hearts for children and adoption and God! As we closed our time together, we spent some time in prayer for each other and for orphans. One of the things that struck me as we prayed was that each of us had encountered and is encountering obstacles to our adoptions. One of my friends mentioned that she believes that the enemy is so bent on thwarting adoptions, that he throws these obstacles in our paths. She might be on to something . . . `See, one of us has a spouse who isn't quite ready for another adoption. Another had an agency tell her family it could not adopt a sibling group. (HUH?!?!?) Another of us has extended family throwing up road blocks. All of us have financial stumbling blocks, delayed court dates, address changes, timing issues. I have health issues causing a delay, and the list goes on and on. All of these obstacles can be overcome, and Lord willing, WILL be overcome. But sitting around that table, listening to my dear friends talk about our shared passion, I realized how important it is that we are holding one another up in prayer. The enemy doesn't want us to adopt. The enemy wants us weak and uncourageous. I refuse to accept that! It makes me want to follow even more adoption blogs than I already read (as if I have more time) because I want to be able to pray for all of those families who are trusting the Lord's call to adopt. Lord, free us all to proceed!`My time with the girls also helped me have another realization. I've sat around for the last few years feeling jealous of my married friends who have families of adopted and biological kids -- for that's what I always wanted for myself: A big family of all kinds of kids from all sorts of countries! And yes, I've been jealous. I've begged forgiveness from the jealousy and turned from it over and over, but it sometimes creeps back in and gets me. Here's the realization I had: I AM one of those families. I have nothing to be jealous of because I fit quite perfectly into my circle of adopted family friends. Praise God! Sure, my family looks a little different than some others, and we pray might look different still in a few years, but I am an adoptive family and look like the picture I always hoped and dreamed to have. Duh! `So praise God for blessings and for friends. And praise Him even for obstacles, which drop us to our knees in total submission to Him. Lord, loose the obstacles for families world wide who are adopting. Let them move quickly forward in perfect submission to your plan for the orphan. Amen.