Resurrection - mother's day

May 8
Mother’s Day
Resurrection Stories
Exodus 2: 1-10

Intro
Here we are week #2 of Resurrection Stories. Again I want to address the question-Why are we doing this series? Is it to elevate certain people up, show them off, exploit them, nope. Sharing Resurrection stories or testimonies, as some people call them, is something that has been done for thousands of years. These stories are meant to inspire, to encourage, to help all of us in our walks with God.

On Easter we ended with our responsibility to tell the story of Jesus’ resurrection-the greatest story ever. And we recognize that there are other stories of ongoing resurrection, stories of continued faithfulness, stories of people encountering the risen Christ, those times when our faith is real, God is real, those times we remember that God is here.

We recognize that Resurrection continues to happen every day.

This morning we are going to share in a resurrection story of parenthood through the faith and life of Deangelo and Lynette Jenkins. But first let’s take a look at our scripture.

Exodus 2: 1-10
The Birth of Moses
1 Now a man of the tribe of Levi married a Levite woman, 2 and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. When she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. 3 But when she could hide him no longer, she got a papyrus basket for him and coated it with tar and pitch. Then she placed the child in it and put it among the reeds along the bank of the Nile. 4 His sister stood at a distance to see what would happen to him.

5 Then Pharaoh’s daughter went down to the Nile to bathe, and her attendants were walking along the riverbank. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her female slave to get it. 6 She opened it and saw the baby. He was crying, and she felt sorry for him. “This is one of the Hebrew babies,” she said.

7 Then his sister asked Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse the baby for you?”

8 “Yes, go,” she answered. So the girl went and got the baby’s mother. 9 Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.”

And now Deangelo and Lynette’s story:
Deangelo-high school student in our youth ministry and now teaches for Head Start.
Lynette worked in our nursery for over 3 years and also teaches at Head Start.
They have been married almost 7 years

As with most couples they wanted to have children but soon discovered they were unable.
Invitro was too much and so they waited and prayed.
In 2007 they decided to do Foster Care-
1st child in November-Kaylea
Told themselves early on that they didn’t want any contact with birth family-so who do you think was there when they went to pick up Kaylea? The Mother and grandmother
The DHS worker wasn’t there yet-2 hrs late-can you say awkward?
God works in mysterious ways though because it ended up being a blessing-built a bond with the family
And that experience was a good starting point as Kaylea was with them from Nov-March
They said this, “Even though we knew she was going back it was still hard. We were supportive of the mom and encouraged her to fulfill her obligations so she could get Kaylea back. But still part of us that wanted to be able to keep Kaylea.”

When DHS called with the 2nd child, Isaac, they asked if they would have a chance to keep him. Kaylea was so hard to give up. Isaac had several broken bones, and so DHS told Deangelo and Lynette they were working to terminate family rights and he would be going up for adoption.

After a few weeks they were told that the rights were terminated and asked if they wanted to adopt him-yes of course-next week received a call that they were picking him up and going to give Isaac over to his grandparents.
They worked really hard with Isaac to bring him along developmentally as he was really behind his normal milestones and after they took Isaac they closed their house off to foster kids.

Then Deangelo and Lynette shared this:
After we lost him-asked Why?
They went back to the doctor for more testing and still nothing.
And then everyone who asks makes it worse. Well meaning people, but it’s still hard.

Still questioning-Why? It’s not fair. We don’t understand. Why are these kids getting pregnant who can’t take care of babies? You watch the news and people are killing or abusing their children.
But God has a different path for each of us. It’s easy to understand now because we can see God working.

As time passed, other people approached Deangelo and Lynette who wanted to give up their baby for adoption-get hopes up. They would decide to keep it or have it terminated.

And so they began to ask God, “What are we supposed to do? Keep trying? Foster/adoption?”
And then Lynette shared this…
19: 55-20:20-Why take it out of God’s hands when there are millions of kids who need homes.

So in October they decided to enter into foster care.

Friday DHS, 3:45 had to call another lady and by that time it was 5pm on Friday-God thing
Hadn’t talked to Deangelo, next week got the paper work, turned it in, then did the home study, and then there was a problem with Deangelo’s fingerprints-which is another God thing.

The guy working there Deangelo knew in high school and went to church with so he took care of them.

They ended up with Tabitha-which is another God story-the mom was a neighbor of a church member for a number of years. Deangelo and Lanette were highly recommended, but still wanted to know more about them. As they were visiting this lady mentioned the name of a church member. She goes to church with us. And it really helped the mom feel comfortable giving the child to them. Other interesting coincidences-Her case was a foster case and not an adoption case-“if we didn’t know Marsha, it never would have happened, if they hadn’t started when they did wouldn’t have been ready,

And they have been blessed to be a part of Isabelle’s life pretty much since day 1.

Isn’t that a beautiful resurrection story?
Now back to the scripture-Why this scripture? I think there is some parallels…
If you love something, sometimes you have to let it go. Deangelo and Lynette had and still have a vision of having their own children, but in some respects they had to let go of that and embrace a new plan.

Secondly, there’s some evidence that Pharaoh’s daughter was unable to have children and thus would have considered Moses a gift from God. Isabelle truly is a gift from God in the lives of Deangelo and Lynette.

Finally, these are both beautiful stories about God’s love and protection. In both stories the mother was no longer able to care for the child to keep it safe. But someone else was able to care for and protect the child. Everyone was open and trusting to God’s plan, although not always easy.

What do we learn?
Prepared:
37:00-

Through it all they never lost faith-got frustrated-never lost faith

And to finish off I want to share with you their answers to the question of what you might want to share with mom’s, since it is Mother’s Day.
Don’t stress out about it.
Don’t lose your faith.
There’s a plan-might not be the plan you wanted
You don’t understand-but there’s a plan-you might not know it.

Beautiful stories of resurrection.