BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

“Renée had always had a heart for orphans and was open to adoption,” Jeremy recalls. “It wasn’t until November 2005 that I first felt a leading to start the adoption process. We decided to adopt a baby from China because there were so many who needed homes. We applied through a wonderful agency and were told that the process would take 18 months to two years. It was expensive and required a lot of paperwork.” Two years later, Chinese adoptions had stalled. Renée learned that no one on the list ahead of them had adopted yet. “It looks like it might take four to five years,” she was told. God Establishes Order Seven years. That’s how long it had been since they’d started trying to have a family. Seven years with no baby in her arms. All her friends were growing their families while she and Jeremy were left behind. “I was so depressed and angry at God,” Renée admits. “It had been seven years and everyone else seemed to be getting the answers to their prayers. I’d done everything I knew to do, including sowing a lot of baby showers.” Feeling broken, Renée grabbed a box of tissue and crawled into her closet. There she poured her heart out to God. In the midst of her deep sorrow, Renée felt a nudge from Him. His words whispered across her mind like angels’ wings. 'This isn’t about you. This is about the generations to come.' In the spirit, Renée glimpsed a desolate Abraham looking up to the stars. Almost as if she were standing beside him, she considered the sweeping grandeur of the universe. Then she heard the Lord speak again. 'God establishes order. He sets order in place—including the order of families. Stand on Abraham’s promise!' Wiping her eyes, Renée sat up. “OK,” she said, “I’ll serve You, Lord, and stand on Abraham’s promise. But I’m not going to hold this in my soul. Here, I’m handing my dream to You.” Mourning and Laughter Another year went by with no pregnancy and no movement from the adoption agency. By September, Jeremy faced his own struggle. He felt like he was on the verge of burnout and cried out for a touch from the Lord. He then had a conversation with a fellow pastor late one evening. This pastor shared how he had watched a DVD from a guest minister. “I can’t quit crying,” he said. “Can I borrow it?” Jeremy asked. “Right now?” That night and again the next morning Jeremy watched the DVD and took notes. Nothing. Then he realized that he hadn’t let it play through the prayer at the end of the message. The man said, “If you don’t have a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus….” At those words, Jeremy jumped to his feet and raised his hands. The power of God hit him with such force that he fell to the floor and wept for hours. “It felt like love walked into the room,” Jeremy remembers. “It radically changed my life. I’d always loved Renée, but nothing like I loved her after that experience. For years afterward, all I had to do was think of Jesus and I wept.” Almost eight years into their quest for a family, Jeremy and Renée were still childless, living in a house too quiet for comfort. During fall 2008, two men came to Jeremy and three women to Renée. Each of them had a word, a vision or a dream, but the message was all the same. 'You’ll soon have a baby.' The church was festive with gold glimmering against green boughs when Jeremy and Renée walked into a service just before Christmas. The pastor taught about Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel. The name caught Renée’s attention. For years she and Jeremy had gotten one name. Gabriel. Were they going to have a son? “Pay attention to how Mary responded,” the pastor urged. “She said, ‘Let it be done unto me.’” The Lord quickened those words to Renée, urging her to let it be her profession of faith. “I started confessing those words,” Renée recalls. “Let it be done unto me.” One Word From God At the end of 2008, during the New Year’s Eve service, Kenneth Copeland released a prophetic word for the coming year: 'Things in 2009 that you thought were absolutely never, ever going to come to pass are going to happen so smoothly and so easily you’re going to say, “My, my, my, I don’t see why I ever was disturbed about that….” This is the way 2009 is going to be—it is going to be the biggest year you’ve ever had in your life!' Jeremy and Renée knew instantly that prophetic word was for them. Three weeks later, both Renée and Jeremy had flu symptoms they couldn’t shake. So miserable, in fact, that Renée went home from work halfway through the day. Renée felt like crawling into bed. Instead, for some reason, she took a home pregnancy test. Positive! She stared at the result and blinked. 22 : BVOV

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