Court Date Anniversary!

On February 1, 2010, the Ethiopian courts declared that two newborn babies that had been orphaned into desperate circumstances were our children.  We'd hardly slept the night before with anticipation, and woke up very early that morning for an update on the court decision.  We found the email in my inbox only minutes after it arrived, at 5:12 in the morning!  God was true to His word in Psalm 9:12 - "He does not forget the cry of the afflicted."  He heard the cries of our little ones and came to their rescue.

God, the creator and upholder of all things, is mindful of each one of us, including a little boy and girl from the small village in Ethiopia.

These sweet babies had been in fairly good care up to that point, but care that is intermediate by its very nature.  There is no substitute for a mother and a father.  Had their court cases not passed, we’re not sure what would have happened to them.  They may have remained orphans for the rest of their lives.  No mother.  No father.  And terrible prospects for life after they aged out of the orphanage.  Deuteronomy 10:18 tells us that God “executes justice for the fatherless.”  What a joy to be God’s provision for these two!

Our son and daughter have had 365 days of being Philpots, and we've had that long of calling them ours.  It's a beautiful thing, and we can't thank the Lord enough for entrusting them to us.

Over the past year we've often reflected on the sacrificial love of our daughter's birth mother and the situation of her unknown birth father and our son's unknown birth parents.  There are only sad reasons why children are made orphans.  My heart has been full of love for these precious babies and sometimes full of grief reflecting on the fact that their birth parents will never have the joy of knowing them like we do.  We are simply not worthy of this gift.

So on this day we give thanks to our Heavenly Father, who created these two children and formed them in their birth mothers' wombs, then lovingly placed them in our arms.  He has given them new names, new identities in our family, and a new hope for a future...much like He has done in our lives through Christ.  What a joy that our family is a picture of that most glorious adoption.  Praise be to God alone!

Psalm 68:6  God sets the lonely in families.

 Just off the plane from Ethiopia with our new son and daughter