Your Hands

On Sunday Jonathan and I received the final copy of our adoption video. It was suggested by some close friends that a video might be a good way to reach lots of people with our need for financial support so we recruited the best videographers we knew. Two teenage boys. Trevor and Austin Ban...or the Ban Bros. They came to our house and filmed us before I left for my East Coast excursion and have been working on it for weeks.
During these last few weeks, I also received permission to use a song that has been playing in my head since March 18 of this year. March 18 was the day before one of my good friend's birthday. She had had knee surgery the month before but had been suffering from terrible staph infections for weeks at this point. She thought she might die. And one day in the midst of all of this, our Pastor's wife sent her a youtube link to JJ Heller's Your Hands. (iTunes sells her songs. Your Hands is on the album Painted Red.) This song gave her hope. So, on March 18, when life was hard, my friend Laura and I gave our in-the-valley friend a surprise pajama birthday party...in her bed. It was a wonderful night...holy almost. And right when we were about to leave she made me sit down and watch this video. I bought JJ's album that night and have played it everyday since. My kids sing Your Hands daily. I l.o.v.e. this song. Besides the hope it gave my friend, it gives me a glimpse of what my Honduran children's prayers might sound like. They have unanswered prayers, they have troubles they wish weren't there. And they have probably asked a thousand ways for the God of the universe to take their pain away, their deep pain. But even through the toughest life circumstances, we are in His Hands. The hands that shaped the world. His hands are holding them and one day He will set all things right. I can't believe God has chosen me to be a vehicle for His love for these children.
So, as I was saying, I GOT PERMISSION FROM JJ HELLER TO USE HER SONG!!!!! I was stunned when I got the email. Amazed. God keeps setting this story up so beautifully.
So, back to the first line of this post...we received the video. I set it live today and I thought I'd share it with you guys, my faithful followers. My prayer for this video is that it will spread online for two reasons. The first I think is obvious: we need lots of money. :) Sorry to be so blunt.
But the other reason is that I want hundreds or thousands of people to be encouraged that they could do this adoption thing too. We want adoption to be way more normal than it is right now. We want more of the 147,000,000 orphans of the world to find families to commune with. And I think this video shows that we are just normal people doing what God asked us to do. Even though it seems a little wacky, or a lot wacky, we are going to step forward in faith because we are in Your Hands, Lord.

PS. Please share this video with anyone and everyone! (Here is the youtube link.)
And thank you again to JJ Heller for the use of Your Hands
And thank you a million times to Trevor and Austin (Ban Bros.)! You guys are really amazing. I l.o.v.e. that my boys get to watch you and learn from you. God is using you mightily.