I am so thrilled to introduce y'all to a friend of mine from Baylor.
She has started a new series on her blog, Gloriously Ruined, in which she is sharing 52 stories of people who are changing the world. . .
{sweet friend, you are at the top of my list of women who are changing my world!}
Wynne also has an amazing giveaway going on right now. . .
Her story is incredible, her life is a testament to Jesus, and her faith is inspiring.
Meet Wynne:
Hey yall, my name is Wynne and I blog over at Gloriously Ruined.
My husband & I just brought home our Ethiopian babes, Camp + Asher. It was quite the adventure but now we are settling in as a family of 4 and loving every moment. Our adoption process wasn't easy and it certainly wasn't our plan. It was never ever on our radar until the summer of 2010 a young friend encouraged me to pray about adoption and God used her challenging question to wreck our plans and gloriously ruin our lives. And we haven't looked back since!
I love that God is using my voice to speak up for the 147 million orphans around the world. I hope that this encourages you whenever you are, and if you've never even thought about adoption I pray God would put it on your heart!
My road to adoption was through a little bit of infertility. Well, right before we were going to start talking about infertility options, God intervened with adoption. The year that we tried to get pregnant was one of hte hardest years of my life. It seemed like everyone around me was pregnant and it was heart breaking. It totally consumed my thoughts. I finally had to give it up to Him! and when I did, He brought something in my path that I couldn't ignore. The thought that His plan for my family might not be JUST about me (wow, wynne, duh!) but the timing of it all could have to do with our child/ren too! I don't know why but that bigger picture really helped me see past MY circumstances. After about a week of praying about it, I was IN! My husband on the other hand took about 3 months. to finally let it go, and ask God to show him. and show him He did!
But there was still a season of waiting. and longing. and that's what I want to encourage you all about.
I just went through 3 really hard years of waiting and longing to be a mother. There were months that were really dark. Days that I weeped and cried out to the Lord, days I was mad and angry at Him, many days I didn't understand His timing. Now, my arms are full and I can SEE what His perfect timing was. I can see what part of His plan was. You see, if we had gotten pregnant when I wanted to - I would never have gone & fallen in love with Africa, been involved with Noonday Collection, adopted and generally had my life gloriously ruined My life looks nothing like it did 3 years ago. My life has been gloriously ruined and wrecked for Him. He has broken and changed my heart. I never was one of those people that "had a heart for the nations" or always knew they "wanted to adopt". I just wanted to live a normal american dream life - married, house, car, job and 3 kids. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but my eyes have been opened to the orphan crisis, the water crisis, and the people I've met and fallen in love with along our adoption journey have changed the way I live my life and see the world.
In the season of waiting I NEVER could have seen this. God has now redeemed that part of my story & is using it for His glory. Ever since I started openly sharing about our road to a family, it's opened up so many conversations with friends (real & bloggy) that are going through the same thing. thats part of why I blog. because we are ALL going through things - and there are OTHERS who are going through things too. and if we could just CONNECT with each other and encourage each other along the road.
It's ok to talk about our struggle, it's ok to struggle. It's ok to not be able to see Gods perfect timing in the middle of a hard season of wait. When we are real with each other, we can relate to each other more and we can support and encourage each other on the journey.
let God use the difficult seasons of your life to reach others for your good & His glory. if we don't have each other to walk with, then who do we have?
