Last year early on this very morning, Sept, 13, 2010, the Lord woke me up to the loud sound of an infant crying. Aaron was already at work, so it was just me. I got up thinking, where on earth is this baby that's crying? I walked around my room and looked out my window, thinking maybe there was someone outside in my front yard holding this crying baby. It was that loud, sounded like the crying was coming from within my house or just outside the window. I said out loud to myself..."what on earth is that?" and just as soon as the words came out of my mouth, in my mind the Lord whispered..."you need to remember this date." And then the crying stopped. I immediately called Aaron and told him what had happened and he asked me what it was I thought the Lord was trying to tell us. And I knew in my spirit and I said," I think He is telling us that our son was born today."
Time went on and soon February came, and we had just gotten our 171H in the mail in a record time of 6 days! I emailed Becky with YWAM and told her that we got our approval and she said... "Ok great! You are now ready to look at our waiting children's list." My response was..."What list?"
She said, "well we don't work like other agencies where we refer a child to you. From the time a child is brought into our care we pray over that child for the Lord to bring that particular child's family to them, because we believe that the Lord already has families picked out for each child." She then went onto tell me that we should log onto the waiting children's list and if the Lord is speaking to us about a specific child we can then request a referral for that child. If He's not, then we keep praying until more children are added to the list and the Lord confirms our child.
So Aaron and I were just about freaking out. We knew in our hearts that this was the Lord's moment with us! We were about to see our son's face for the first time! With hands shaking we made an account to log onto the list. Before logging on I told Aaron..."Oh my gosh, if that was what the Lord was trying to tell us on the
13th of Sept, then he would be 4 months old right now! So Aaron prayed that when we logged on that there wouldn't be any doubt whatsoever in recognizing our son! So we logged on and at the time there were about 14 kids on the list. We carefully looked at each beautiful child, but nothing was just jumping out at us. When we got down to the very bottom of the list, there he was! "Baby boy "M," 4 MONTHS OLD!" Aaron said he knew in his heart that he was looking at the face of our son the moment he saw his picture. I clicked on the picture, and read his story....It said something along the lines of ..."Baby boy "M" was found wrapped only in a beige scarf, abandoned and left on a woman's doorstep, he was then taken to the local police department where they figured him to be 2 weeks old at the time. The police gave him the estimated birthday of Sept. 11, 2010. When I saw this I knew! This was him, although the police were off by 2 days :) The Lord had already told me when his birthday was. You see, Sept. 11th in Ethiopia is the the beginning of the New Year for them, so a lot of babies found around this time are given the birthday of the new year.
In that very precious moment the Lord had us in, Aaron and I were in awe of Him. He blew us away in the way He revealed our son to us! It was one of the most incredible moments of our lives! The Lord is so personal and He speaks so clearly if we seek Him in things and have the ears to hear Him! He wants to reveal himself to us in amazing ways! And on Sept 13th last year He did just that, and He confirmed it again the following February when we saw Josiah Moti Reeves for the first time ever! That very next morning, I got out the Bible and was reading, and the Lord confirmed again through scripture. Psalm 2 popped into my mind and I started reading until I came to the words..." I will declare a decree in the heavens that you are my son." So after that day, Aaron and I claimed that scripture over that little 4 month old boy whose picture captured our hearts! We declared to everyone that "he was our son!"
I think there were some skeptical people who heard our story. Some who maybe thought I was a little off my rocker thinking that I heard a baby cry and thinking the Lord told me that it was my son's birthday. Some of you reading this now may even be thinking that! But that's ok. We know! We know it was real. It was as real an experience as me sitting here at my computer typing these words out right this very second. It was as real as seeing that face in person for the first time and holding him in my arms. I wasn't dreaming it, I was wide awake hearing that cry, and I know it was the Lord telling me...."Listen my daughter....do you hear him? That's your son who was born today."
We hear you Lord, and we are so very thankful you are such a personal God and a Father who has been so involved in leading every single step in this whole process! You stunned and amazed us through this entire journey and our hearts overflow with thankfulness to you! Thank you for this day Lord! "This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it." Thank you for our son, and leading us to him, and thank you that he will be home soon enough! Happy 1st birthday Josiah Moti Reeves. We love you so much and can't wait to celebrate every birthday for the rest of our lives with you!
These were some of the first pictures we got of him :)
