Testimony of Trust and Obedience

My name is Mary Ann Burkhardt. I am a stay at home mom of three boys. My husband Jeff and I have been members of First Presbyterian Church for six years. I have taught Sunday School to the 3- and 4-year olds and continue to be a choir mom for the Cherub Choir. I enjoy attending the Moms of Young Children Bible study. In October I was privileged to attend a women's weekend retreat at Spring Hill Camp with our church. It was a spiritually uplifting and totally life changing experience for me. Everything from the music and guest speakers to the location and conversation was setting my heart up for something bigger then I could imagine. Our final worship service for the weekend was on Sunday morning. I was very deep in prayer. (It felt so good to be completely focused and in tune with God). As I was praying, singing, worshipping (and crying), I opened my eyes and looked up and I heard God say, "You are going to adopt a baby." My response was, "What about the house?" God responded with "don't worry about the house, it's not yours anyway, it's being prepared for someone else". The entire spiritual encounter was awesome. I was enveloped by the Holy Spirit. At that moment I felt so overwhelmed, like a weight was on my shoulders. I continued worshipping and praying and the heaviness lifted, and I began to feel light. I was totally blessed to have had this experience. To think for that brief moment in my life it was just me and God...how awesome!!!

My prayers have continued that God's will may be done. We have been led to adopt a baby from China. We began the "paper chase" to complete our dossier in January of 2005. In March, the day before our final home study, we were here at church during the morning worship service and I just felt led to pray for twins. The next day our social worker approved us for twins. Our paperwork was sent to China May 13 and was officially logged in China on May 17. We are now in the waiting period. Our referral is expected in November. It will include the baby's name, location, picture and health history. Our travel should be sometime early next year. We are not guaranteed twins. As a matter of fact, China usually does not refer twins to families who already have children. We were definitely led to ask for twins. Is it because we are getting twins? Maybe our new daughter has a twin somewhere in the world that needs prayers? We do not know. Only God knows. We are living by faith and trust in the Lord, that through this process, His will be done.

Mary Ann Burkhardt