The Dream
It all started with a dream.
Well not really, but it sounds pretty dramatic. But there
was a dream, and it did impact us greatly! Last February
(2006), Dan and I had been futilely attempting for two years
to get pregnant. Not really a nightmare, but certainly a
long two years, which just got longer and harder as each
month went by. We had always said that we wanted to adopt,
but our idea was that we would have biological children
first, and then adopt. Things were obviously not going
according to plan, as they never really do. One night I had
a dream. I really wish that I had woken up and written it
down instantly, as I always wish when I have a dream that I
know is coming from God. But I do remember a few things.
I
remember being handed a baby, one I had not birthed, but
knew was mine to raise. The baby was so tiny and I was
afraid that it would break. (I say "it" because I do not
know whether the baby was a boy or a girl). The baby had
dark skin, but I did not know the race. What I did know was
the name. Over and over in the dream, I called the baby ?Ashar?.
I just knew that was the name. It was interesting that
though I knew the baby was mine and Dan's to raise, we had
no ownership. We were the parents, but the child was not
ours to do with what we wanted. In fact, in the dream, time
went very fast, and the child grew very quickly.
I have thought a lot about that
dream since I had it. For one thing, I had never even heard
the word "Ashar" before. The next day I looked it up. I
found out the word is a Hebrew word which literally means:
to be straight, to be level, to be right, to go forward, to
lead, to be blessed. It's funny how you hear something for
the first time, and suddenly you hear it everywhere, and we
did.
We knew the dream was about our
child and the name of our child. Dan always says he believes
God can speak to us about the destiny and purpose of our
children, and that as parents, we need to be building that
purpose and destiny in them. I don't pretend to know at this
point what it all means. But what I do know is that God has
a plan for our children, and that we as parents will be
required to help our children discover what that is, and who
He is. I don't know the circumstances, or the process, but I
know that God knows it, and we will know what we need to
know.
When I look with my natural
eyes, I think about the fact that Ashar is not a name that
we would ever come up with on our own. But maybe adoption
from Ethiopia was not something that we would have come up
with on our own either. It's all His idea, He birthed it in
our hearts, and we are sold out for that.
2007 Children's Hope International.
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