Well, those first few months of our marriage seem like an eternity ago. Our baby has grown up to be a strapping young man and just turned 9. This means that we are closing in on our 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY. It is hard to believe it has been that long, I'm not that old am I?? Josh and I started talking and planning a little over a year ago that we wanted to go somewhere special for our ten year - just us - no kids - somewhere warm and exotic - - we wanted to plan a trip to Hawaii!!
Well - if you have been following our journey over the last year at all, you know that God had bigger and better plans for us than a trip to Hawaii!! He has changed our hearts, lives, and outlook on life. When we submitted our paperwork last year, we were hopeful that maybe we would get to be in Ethiopia picking up our child and bringing her home over our anniversary.
Well - if you know anything about God, our timelines are never what God has in mind. We waited longer and longer for our referral than we ever thought we would. We started doubting we would get to see Ethiopia by our anniversary - knowing that being there for our 2nd trip was definately not going to happen.
God's plan is not always our own - BUT - it is always good, and right, and perfectly His. A month ago we got to look into the face of our son!!!! According to what other families had been trending, we would wait about a month to hear our court date...then we would go to court about a month later. We accepted our referral on March 29th - 2 months out to a court date would be May 29th!!! Well folks, our TEN year anniversary is May 25th!!!!!!
We are right at a month from referral - the time we should be hearing when our court date is....the wait is driving me crazy. Several families have been held up with paperwork and my humaness wants to worry and fret and make myself sick. In my heart I know that God has got this and His plan is perfect. I hate to admit, however, that my humaness often wins out and my mind reels and worries at ALL of the aspects of this whole journey that are out of my control.
We have been praying fervently and on purpose - that God would allow us to spend our 10 year anniversary - not on a beach somewhere - not just us, with no kids - not at some resort relaxing....BUT... we have prayed that God would allow us to spend our anniversary WITH our kids - all FOUR of them...that He would allow us to spend it in the midst of His people - taking donations to those in need - loving on kiddos who've only known grief and loss in their little lives.
God's desire is for us to be more like Him and it is amazing how He can change your desires from this...
To THIS...
Please join us in praying for a memorable anniversary gift - the gift of family, and life, and memories! Pray that God would grant us a court date around our anniversary so that we can spend it as a family! Please continue to pray for our son as he has a lot of adjustment ahead of him. Pray that we would be the family that he needs us to be. Pray that we will be strong enough to put our humaness aside and trust in God's plan for our family and our lives.
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