Keeping Our Feet on the Hard Path (Part 1)

My husband, Bill, and I were in Ukraine.  This was our third trip.  But this trip was different.  We were on mission to adopt an eight-year-old little girl named Katya.  Leaving the US was less of an adventure this time, and more of a tearing of my heart.  We had left behind six kids to go after the one.  As I flew across the ocean, anticipating that we would be gone between five and eight weeks, I felt like I was living a parable.   

The mission was a hard one.  But God had spoken to us through our quiet times, in prayer, through relationships, and through the hundreds of doors He had opened to get us to this point.  Though the mission was daunting, though the path was challenging, we knew it was right.  Our faces were set like flint.  

One morning, about nine days into our trip, I received this email from one of my daughters, Adelyn:

I just wanted to fill you in on what happened to Piper. I am not sure how much you know so I will just tell you everything. Piper was carrying some hot tea over to the sink and it slipped out of her hands and splashed on her. It burned away some of the skin and continued to burn it away as we put cold water on it and called the doctor. Piper was in a fair amount of pain but handled it very bravely. The doctor said to go ahead and take her into the ER. We wrapped her arm in plastic wrap and Mrs. Myers whisked her away to the hospital. The pain increased as they made their way to the hospital …  Please keep her in your prayers. (especially that the pain would ease and she would stop shaking) I love you and please don't worry. :)

Please don't worry.  The mission just got more costly.  The path just got harder.  (To be continued ...)

John Piper talks about suffering as choosing to lay down our lives, knowing there will be cost, for the sake of loving others in the name of Christ.  There is a stirring in the body of Christ for this choosing  and I'm seeing it as young people embrace the "least" by selling it all and moving to foreign shores to serve.  As ordinary moms like me become kitchen table abolitionists.  As women open their hands and proclaim a holy, "Whatever God."  

With this kind of radical, crazy love there is cost.  Women like Ann Voskamp and Jen Hatmaker and Christine Caine are issuing a clarion call.  But there's stirring beyond the writers and preachers of our age.  

Our first trip to Ukraine kicked us out of the theological nest and the comfort of our church community and into the world of orphans, institutionalized women, and a nation where the air is still heavy with communism and corruption.  This story is one that developed over years.  And, it's OUR story.  This path, this mission that had me hanging by a thread in Ukraine, was years in the making.  

This isn't a story to convince anyone to adopt.  Rather, my hope is that it will encourage you to examine YOUR path with honesty.  

I'd love to hear where you are.  Leave a comment, email me at cynthiafin@gmail.com, connect with me on FB.  I'd love to come alongside you, marvel at the path you're on, and say, "Go girl!"  

On Wednesday I’ll take us to a Bible story of another woman whose mission was costly, who needed help to keep her feet on the path.  Join me here!  

Digging Deeper:  Luke 15:1-7; Matthew 10:34-37; James 4:13-15; 1 Peter 1:6-9