Off

It's late. For me at least.

I should really be in bed, and I was, but something has me slightly bothered. Actually, it is a passage from a book that I was reading just before I turned out my light that doesn't so much bother me as much as it confirms what I have been feeling, or sensing, lately.

Let me just rewind a bit.

A year and a half ago Adam went on a missions trip to Peru. In the weeks leading up to his trip, he was experiencing some really strange, off the wall behaviors coming from complete strangers, in the way of stare-downs and threats. For those of you who know Adam, you know that he is not the type of person to incite this type of reaction. He is a very quiet, mellow, stick to himself kind of guy. So you can imagine how discouraged he was after experiencing two very uncomfortable situations within a few days of each other. It was really bizarre and had us wondering what was going on.

Now, fast forward to this past week.

I don't know how else to explain how we have been feeling, except to say that everything just feels off. Nothing is going quite right and it's causing a lot of frustration and tension. And to make matters worse things keep breaking in our house, and are doing so in the most ridiculous ways. And yes, I understand that we all have days like that. It's a fact of life, and something, that as a mother, I am very used to. But this is different. This is burdensome, heavy and making us weary.

But it occurred to me yesterday, as I looked at the damage done to Adam's high end mountain bike - his race bike - that something else is going on here. It's not just bad luck, or a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And so tonight, as I was reading a book called Same Kind of Different As Me, by Ron Hall, Denver Moore with Lynn Vincent, I found these words underlined:

The work Miss Debbie is doin at the mission is very important. She is becomin precious to God. When you is precious to God, you become important to Satan.

And that is what Adam and I are right now...important to Satan.

And do you know why? Because we have been called by God to adopt our daughter. The barriers of land and sea, of Russia's government and our finances are not going to keep us from her. And although Satan knows that, he is still working hard to wear us down and discourage us. And I will admit that he has been pretty successful up until now. But not anymore, and so I am going to write him a goodbye letter.

Dear Satan,
I'll admit that you are pretty tricky, but I'm on to your game now and wanted to let you know that you are no longer welcome here. You do not have a place in this adoption, nor in our home or lives, and I will no longer allow you to have a foothold on our lives by discouraging us through your constant deception. If you have a problem with that, please direct your questions to the Lord, as I will have nothing to do with you from here on out.

Amen.

Okay, I can go to bed now.

Goodnight.