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Mar 31, 2016
Adoption· Faith

The Miraculous and the Ridiculous

I often wonder if our hopes to adopt without an agency are, well, “ridiculous”.

It’s been over a year . . . and we are still waiting . . .

But then I hear a quote like this one:

“Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous. ” Mother Angelica

climbeverymountainMother Angelica passed away this week.  She was the founder of EWTN and was often seen on the television channel in full habit giving talks about faith.  Since she passed away, my newsfeed is flooded with some of her quotes.  So many awesome quotations! This woman was a riot! By far, my favorite quotation is the one above.  “Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous.”

It doesn’t take me long to reflect and remember moments in my life where I did something that seemed to be ridiculous.

  • I went away to college with no money and no real plan of how I was going to pay for it.  Through Divine Intervention I lived at college for four years, graduated on time and my undergrad loans are paid off.  Believe me, this is nothing short of miraculous.
  • My husband and I adopted a baby who we were told “is very sick”.  No other information was given, we agreed.  Then more information was given – and it was all extremely vague because, honestly, no one knew how and if his health would improve. We ran to him – and now he is running . . . and jumping, and reciting his phone number and address, and being the beautiful, compassionate soul God made him. He is a miracle.
  • I resigned from my teaching career to be a stay at home mom.  We couldn’t “afford” it. . .  but all I kept hearing is “God will provide”.  And He has . . .

I wish I was writing this post to say, hey – it worked!  We adopted a newborn.  No – we adopted newborn twins and they are both sleeping right now while I type.  I wish. However, I believe that the Lord is sending me some reassuring messages.  My husband and I’s “ridiculous” journey of pursuing adoption without an agency has brought some amazing blessings and unimaginable doors have opened!rosegardenblogpost.jpg

  1. Until last January, I was unfamiliar with the organization A Baby’s Breath.  A Baby’s Breath has five crisis pregnancy centers within driving distance from our home. Someone told me to send our adoption profile to them.  One Saturday morning I sat down to write a letter to them. As I began to type, the President and Founder of A Baby’s Breath sent me a friend request on Facebook.  About a month later I was speaking at their leadership conference.  One year later I was honored to be the Leadership Conference Coordinator for the organization and the Director of their new adoption support group, “The Rose Garden“. 
  2. I am a blogger/writer!  It’s not something I gave much thought to before, but with an incredibly sweet and supportive husband – the thought of it became a reality.  I have met so many incredible people in the short time PrayerWineChocolate has been blog! Writing here has re-ignited my faith and enthusiasm for life! Isn’t being excited about life a miracle sometimes!!??? I am so grateful for this miracle of happiness and hope!
  3. Radio!  I was a guest on a radio show Monday!  Can you tell that I am still so exited?  And you know what?  I made myself call another radio announcer before typing this morning.  I left him a message saying I would love to be on his show.  Because unless I’m willing to do the ridiculous . . .I think you know the rest 🙂ontheradio.jpg

My hope and prayer is twofold.

  1.  I hope and pray that it is God’s will for our family to grow.
  2.  I hope and pray that God is using me to help others adopt.

I feel that the cost of adoption is extremely intimidating.  My heart’s intention is that I will soon write a post titled “Pursuing an Adoption without an Agency: How it finally worked”.  My hope and prayer is that this journey will help so many other people!  If being ridiculous is God’s plan for me . . . by all means – I’m in!

Who wants to be ridiculous with me?

 

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Comments

  1. Alicia says

    April 1, 2016 at 7:52 am

    Me 😉 I love Mother Angelica, I listened to many of her shows on my ipod as I walked in the morning. Her words really pushed me forward in my return to the faith. Now I am an altar server, volunteer for the funeral luncheons (soon to be put in charge of it) painting the nativity figures to restore them and doing phyrograhic images of patron saints. It truly stuns me sometimes.

    • Amy says

      April 1, 2016 at 9:04 am

      It’s awesome how there are so many ways you give your time and talent! Great reminder to all of us that there are many ways to serve the Lord!

  2. Meg says

    April 1, 2016 at 12:53 pm

    I have so many words to share and yet I am without the east words. All I can say is YES! I am in to living the Ridiculous life if a faithful fiat to Jesus no matter where it takes me and how.!

    Our Blessed Mothers unfailing support and intercession!

    Love,
    Meg

    • Amy says

      April 1, 2016 at 2:09 pm

      I love, love, love the enthusiastic yes!!!

  3. Laurel says

    April 1, 2016 at 12:54 pm

    Amen, sister! Here’s to being ridiculous!

    Love your post!

    • Amy says

      April 1, 2016 at 2:09 pm

      Thank you Laurel!

  4. Meg says

    April 1, 2016 at 12:54 pm

    Arghhhh it should have read the right words not east! Ridiculous already in the making 😉

    • Amy says

      April 1, 2016 at 2:10 pm

      I understood 🙂

  5. Caroline @ In Due Time says

    April 1, 2016 at 3:04 pm

    YES!!! SO much Yes to this. We are being ridiculous because even though doctors and tests have given us a ZERO percent chance of conceiving, we are still believing for a miracle from natural conception! This quote is spot on “Unless you are willing to do the ridiculous, God will not do the miraculous. ” Mother Angelica

    AMEN

    • Amy says

      April 1, 2016 at 3:36 pm

      Amen Caroline! I will keep you and your husband in my prayers!

  6. Amy says

    April 1, 2016 at 3:06 pm

    Wow, Amy, I gotta say that I admire your complete trust in God’s providence. Giving every aspect of your future to our Lord is a tough thing to do, but once you give everything to Him, life will be spectacular. Thank you for this post.

    • Amy says

      April 1, 2016 at 3:37 pm

      Thank you Amy! Please keep us in your prayers!!!

  7. Jess says

    April 1, 2016 at 10:57 pm

    I just realize how ridiculous my life has been. I’ve been a skydiver for almost 20Yrs, that’s how I met my husband (I coached him!), I lived on a boat for a while, I agreed to move to another country for work, and was settled in less than three weeks (in a country where I did not know anyone or have ever even visited before). But God has always been by my side. That gives me the courage to believe that ‘I can do all things through Christ’. I’m about to give birth to my third child and my desire is to have a natural birth after two cesareans, at home… I know that, as silly and ridiculous as it might sound, God will be there with me to guide me and to make sure everything is OK. I just need to ridiculously trust him, without doubts. I’m praying for you Amy, keep on being ridiculous!

    • Amy says

      April 2, 2016 at 10:05 am

      Jess – I love you – you’re awesome! Sounds like you live life to the fullest and have a beautiful relationship with Our Lord! So happy to be getting to know you!

      • Jess says

        April 4, 2016 at 12:59 pm

        <3

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