Reversing the Status: June 2014

November 4, 2013 we were chosen to be the parents of a little girl to be born November 21st. Of course one of the very first things on the agenda was to figure out a name for her. Unlike the previous two littles God gave us, this name came very easy. You see, our pastor has been preaching through the book of Genesis for the last year and a half and several weeks prior to being chosen for our girl, I had been reading in Genesis chapter 29.

Rachael was who Jacob set his sight on to marry. He loved her, worked seven years for her and wanted desperately to marry her. She was who he planned to spend forever with. Rachael's father had different plans in mind and deceived Jacob into marrying Leah. Even after his marriage to Leah he still pursued a marriage to Rachael. The Bible says that Jacob loved Rachael more than Leah; the hard reality here is that Leah was not a part of Jacob's plan.

However, the Bible also says, "Now the Lord saw that Leah was unloved, and He opened her womb..." The Bible goes on to tell us how God blessed Leah with many children by Jacob...and not just any children...

God gave her one son in particular...and she said, "this time I will praise the Lord. Therefore she named him Judah." The fourth son of Jacob and Leah was going to have a very special lineage...a lineage that would benefit those looking for a Savior, those of us looking for redemption, those of us looking for an escape from sin. That's right, none other than Jesus Christ was going to come from the line of Judah to be known as the "Lion of Judah." Hallelujah!

After receiving the news that we were going to be entrusted with a precious little girl who was not in the plan for one family, but was in the plan God had guided and directed our family to, it was very obvious what her name should be.

On November 21st, 2013 Leah Joy Jalina Williams was born into our family because of the command God wrote in His word to us His children in James1:27 that "Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God is to look after orphans and widows in their distress." God knit her together in a womb that was not mine, and fashioned her body with care and detail, He created her which gave her value and worth and His plans for her give her purpose. She was not planned by the two who chose life for her, but she was most certainly planned by a God who loved her from the moment He began her framework and she has been loved by oh so very many from the moment she took her first breath outside of the place she grew for nine months.

Jacob and Leah's marriage was not planned and might be seen by some as a mistake, she might not have been loved and valued by her husband like she wanted; My Leah's life is not marked by carefully fashioned planning as some would see it, some might even call her life an accident or a mistake...

but thanks be to God that He saw fit to use the womb of an unplanned marriage to bring fourth the lineage of a Redeemer and glory to His name that he used the womb of another woman to bring fourth the beautiful life of a little girl that we believe with all our hearts He has great plans for.

Today marks a day in the history and life of our family that takes me back to the miracle of my Salvation. I was enslaved to the orphanage of this world, but God loved me so much that He paid a very high price with the life of His one and only son for me to be grafted into His family. The day He drew me to Himself was the day I was grafted into a new family and made an heir with Jesus Christ. I became an "official" member of the body of Christ, the family of God, a daughter of the Most High God. I was given a new life and a new hope.

Today Leah became an "official" member of our family, she was adopted as a Williams forever, an heir with Madie and Hannah, a daughter of Stephen and Christy. We are giving her a new life and what I pray will one day be a new hope...We pray this will not be her only adoption...we hope to have news one day soon of her adoption into the family of God!