The Lacher Family

There are many instances recorded in the Bible – and likely countless others that aren’t recorded – where God performed divine miracles. As someone who believes that the Bible is God’s Word and that it is inherently true, it is awe-inspiring for me to read about these works. However, in today’s “instant gratification” culture, I believe more and more people think God no longer performs miracles. That somehow He either stopped caring enough to do the impossible, or that He is no longer powerful enough to do so. Sticking with the belief that the Bible is true, then neither of these statements can be true. Let’s break that down a little bit.

1. The idea that the Lord stopped caring about us enough to perform miracles. We know from Hebrews 13:8 that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” so if He performed miracles then, He will continue to perform them now. And Psalm 136 is just one example of countless mentions of God’s enduring love. OK, so we know that God showed His love for all of us by sacrificing His only son to pay the price for our sins (John 3:16) and that this love is unchanging. But what about…
2. The idea that the Lord is not powerful enough to perform miracles. Now I think you’d be hard-pressed to find someone that would say “God doesn’t have the strength/power/authority to do XYZ” but let’s face it – we often live like that is our belief. We try to take matters into our own hands, even when it is our faith that has led us there. We read verses like Psalm 46:1 (“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble”) and try to believe it but then our Type-A personalities take over and we think we can do things better our way. But 1Corinthians 1:25 tells us “For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.” Oh boy, have I seen that truth in my life over the past few months.

Our journey to adopt Julia was truly a faith walk that started almost 15 years ago as God placed adoption on our hearts – shortly after Dan and I met and long before we were even married – and culminated in meeting our youngest daughter on March 7 of this year. But ever since then, my faith has been challenged. It is only recently that I have realized that my struggles are related to my perception of God. Do I really think God stuck with us all that time to bring Julia into our family and then walked away, brushing His hands as if to say “my job is done here?” I have seen the results of trying to carry this burden on my own – at times, I have sunk into the depths of despair, and my words, thoughts, and deeds have been completely outside my normal character. To put it mildly, Satan has been having a field day messing with me.

Today, I say NO MORE. I will rely on that which I know is true:

Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Romans 5:2-5: “We boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

2Corinthians 12:9-10: “[The Lord] said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

God has been faithful all along. I know now that this season is meant to pull me to Him closer than ever before. And recently, as I have started to TRY to release my “control” He has shown me glimpses of progress. Over the past two weeks, we are to a point where Julia will fall asleep in her crib with one of us just sitting beside it (after 9 months of her needing some form of physical contact to fall asleep.) And now, as I admit my weakness, and my sin in not relying on God (knowing that I have a LONG way to go on that front), He has done a modern-day miracle.

Last night, Julia slept. All. Night. Long! She was asleep at 8:00pm and we neither saw nor heard anything from her until 6:30 this morning. All I can say is PRAISE THE LORD!

Does this mean we have turned the corner? Not necessarily. Can we expect this every night? Definitely not yet. But oh, how this has given me a renewed dose of faith and awe in my Creator. Now my prayer is that I would continue to draw close to Him and not get in the way of the mighty things He is doing in our family and in my heart.

In adoption circles, an oft-quoted Bible verse is found in the first chapter of the book of James. Verse 27 states, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” But for my journey right now, that first chapter of James offers a couple of additional nuggets that have me thinking this morning:

James 1:2-4: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

James 1:19-20: “My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.”

James 1:22-25: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.”

How has God’s Word blessed you lately? And are your eyes open to the miracles, big and small, that God is setting in motion all around you?

As some of you as friends and family know, our youngest daughter is currently in a stage where she does not sleep well at night. This is a heavy weight on my wife and myself as we help comfort her for what seems like endless hours night after night. This morning in worship this song was spoken from God’s heart to mine as I sat there in tears trying to listen. So I sat there thinking: What if my healing comes through tears? What if a thousand sleepless nights? What if those are what it takes to know God is near? What if trials of this life are God’s mercies in disguise? What am I really praying for? What are you really praying for? The song is titled: Blessings, by Laura Story.

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love us way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
And we cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we’d have faith to believe

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
And what if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not, this is not our home
It’s not our home

‘Cause what if Your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
And what if a thousand sleepless nights
Are what it takes to know You’re near
What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can’t satisfy
And what if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are Your mercies in disguise

(Disclosure: this post is a few days late – it’s been busy around here lately!)

One year ago, we fell in love with this sweet face:

We said yes to her big brown eyes, chubby cheeks, and the imagined personality we projected on to her. We dreamed of her for months and finally went halfway around the world to bring her home. Since then, our lives have been filled with highs – attachment, learning to walk, her rapidly growing vocabulary – and lows – attachment regressions, skin issues, and sleep. But one year later, we now get to be in love with our DAUGHTER, not just the idea of her or the precious first photo received. It isn’t always easy, but we sure have come a long way.

And so we go, one milestone at a time, into our new normal.

So I know that we have been REALLY bad about posting pictures.  But we are taking them.  Lots of them.  I promise.  In fact, I even made sure to take one on our 6 month family anniversary to post…and never did.  So I thought I would post that now, since this weekend marked our 7 month anniversary.

You may recall this photo, taken 3 weeks after Julia was placed in our arms for the first time:

And here, six months later sporting the same shirt:

I can tell you that in the past month, her bangs are now REALLY hanging in her eyes (I need to commit to either trimming them or pinning them over to the side!)  Sleep has gotten better…and then worse again.  She has made huge strides with Daddy and everyone survived Mommy’s first business trip away with flying colors.

And now it is well past time for bed for this mama.  Sorry for the random post, but that’s all you get right now.  Yawn.

We went on a shopping spree today:

• 6 mosquito nets to protect from malaria
• 2 dairy goats
• 30 fruit trees
• 1 bicycle for a missionary to get to remote villages to spread God’s Word
• enough food to feed 5 hungry babies for a week
• vocational training for 1 person to provide for his/her family
• 1 water filter to provide clean drinking water to a family’s household
• Christian education materials and New Testaments for a classroom of 15 children

Remember this post?  Well, the above is what we were able to buy with only three months’ worth of savings!  If you want to go on a shopping spree of your own, visit the Christmas Catalog at Samaritan’s Purse.  Our girls are already looking forward to filling shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child through this organization again this year.

I’ve really turned into a bad blogger.  For those waiting with baited breath for an update…well, I apologize since you are probably blue in the face by now!  This is a week of big events in our house so I figured it was time to write a little something.

Today was Emily’s first day of first grade!  She was so excited.  She started asking me at about 7:30 when it would be time to go to school (first bell doesn’t ring until 8:43!)  We did some jobs around the house and ran to the post office to kill some time.  Then we made the brisk walk to school (it was quite chilly this morning) and found her classroom.  She was excited to learn that she has a locker!  They are the first class of first graders at her school to have lockers.  There are 4 or 5 familiar faces in her class but a lot of new friends too.  Tonight when I asked her what her favorite part of the day was she replied, “Everything!”  As an added bonus, she had soccer practice tonight.  She is so happy to be back in the swing of fall.

The other big news at our house is that tomorrow marks six months since Julia was placed in our arms. That day seems like a lifetime ago in many ways, but the time has also gone so quickly.  I will do a post soon about what we have learned over the past 6 months and also include an updated picture.  But for now, I’m going to go get some sleep while I can…unfortunately things haven’t changed much in that area.

As for Norah, she had a great time this summer at both gymnastics camp and a week of tennis lessons.   Am I a bad mom for trying to use tennis to get her away from gymnastics?!