On Our Doorstep

I often pray to God for clarity.  I pray for Him to make His will SO clear that I cannot possibly ignore it.  In situations where I have been confused about how to move forward, I often sit back and just wait for Him to drop the most obvious clue in my lap. Or, maybe on my doorstep.

Apparently He knows we work this way because that is exactly what happened last night.  A knock at our door from a young lady we have known and loved for years, changed the course of the last 24 hours for our entire family.

Without going into tons of personal details, I will say it was a trying and emotional situation and one that was prayed through the entire way.  Honestly there was a bit of fear-mostly fear of the unknown, and also some total confusion.  I felt His peace throughout it all, even in the midst of anger, confusion and the fear.  After many phone calls, a visit to DHS, a visit to the group home, calls with the child advocate lawyer…and TONS of time with Trish helping us figure it all out…we are in what we feel like is a good place.

Trish works for CASA and is involved with social work/court/child advocacy cases and such, so we knew she was the one to call and walk us through.  Thankfully she was able to and spent most of her day helping us help this young girl.

We still don’t know entirely how the situation will play out but we feel like this was His way of saying that she needed us to be involved to guide her more along this path of becoming independent.  We are willing to do what He asks of us, especially when it is made so clear.

For awhile I honestly thought we were about to begin raising another teenage girl, but that was not His plan for now.  The group home is where she will remain and after meeting the people there and meeting the DHS worker and knowing the lawyer involved is advocating for her greatly-I feel so much better.  I think she just needed to know people still believed in her and are here behind the scenes to support her, even if from afar.

There are obviously many other details, but the end result is what matters.  She is safe, God used us to bring some clarity to a few things, and all is well for now.  Please pray for the future, these next few months for her are detrimental to her success as she will be turning 18 soon and all thing will change for her, IF she messes up.  If she does well, she can continue to receive state support beyond her 18th birthday, which is what she needs.  She can do this, she can succeed, but she has to make good decisions.

This was another one of those days that make me so thankful we live here.  Right here, in the neighborhood.  She knew she could come to us, she knew where we lived.  She knew we loved her and that she could trust us.  I am thankful to have Trish and all of her CASA work and the knowledge she had today that brought so much peace and understanding to an other wise confusing situation.  God is GOOD and once again, He knows what he is doing.