Hopeful: Full of desire with expectation of obtainment

Adoption: The act of taking by choice into a relationship; especially taking voluntarily a child of other parents as one’s own child

This past Saturday, my friend Linda & I went to a local health food/ coffee shop. It’s a new establishment and we were in early so, other than one employee, we were alone. Linda and I recently completed our Bible study so we met at the bistro to decide our next plan of course. After preparing our tea and my muffin, the employee brought them out on a serving tray in ceramic dishes and introduced herself as “Tamika”. We struck up a cordial conversation with Tamika and she began to share her story with us. Tamika is a single mom of a 9 year old boy, Dee, yet she is not his biological mother.

You see Tamika has a sister who has never been married yet birthed 6 children. When her second child, Dee, came along she was going to give him up for adoption. Tamika couldn’t stand the thought and took him home with her. From that day forward Tamika has been raising Dee as her own son. When Dee was 4 years old his birth mother became angry with Tamika and told him that Tamika was not his real mother but that she was. From that time until now, five years, Dee has been struggling with the confusion of having an aunt who is his mother but doesn’t want him and 5 cousins who are biologically his siblings. They are mostly raised by Tamika’s mother, (also named Linda), and Dee and Tamika are around them very often but their mother has no parenting skills and therefore has little to do with any of them.

Tamika was at her wits end trying to convince Dee that he was loved and wanted and that although she didn’t birth him she was still his mother. I must admit after 35 minutes of listening to Tamika I was beginning to wonder if Linda and I would be able to complete our agenda and take care of the logistics of our next study. Then it hit me; here I was distracted by details of a study to help us live Jesus when the opportunity of actually being Jesus to someone was directly in front of me; a live wire and big talker who loved Jesus and her son. Linda gave Tamika some very sound advice on what to say to Dee and I strongly agreed. I think I saw a little bright light twinkle in Tamika’s eye – a ray of hope. It was as though she was being lifted out of the mud of confusion and into the brook of clarity.

Linda and I did get to line out most of our lesson and as we closed with prayer we asked God to give peace to Dee, wisdom to Tamika and growth to her sister. I pray that one day Tamika will be able to afford to legally adopt Dee so that he will not be hanging in the wings in his mind but will know exactly to whom he belongs. Just as we know we are adopted into His kingdom; we are joint heirs with Christ and we don’t have to be confused. Romans 8:14-17

I knew when we went into the shop that through prayer we’d figure out where to dive next into His pool of learning but I didn’t know that through a sweet, verbal clerk I would be quiet, begin to see where to minister, and would hear when God Speaks!

Blessings,

Treva Hamm