EPIPHANY!

I just took a look at my Lillypie Adoption Timeline in my header....

NEXT WEEK WILL BE EXACTLY 9 MONTHS SINCE WE STARTED PROCESS!!!

God doesn't work by coincidences! :)

Testing! This is likely how we will send messages while we are in Ethiopia. Love to all of you!! :)

Leaving in 1 week!!

We are so very excited!! We get to hold our precious 6 year old in 10 days!!

We got new pictures this past Friday!! WHAT A BLESSING! He is just so adorable! Can't wait to see how he "Tucks in" to our crazy family!

The Lord is so Good!!

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I had a little breakdown this past weekend... I keep replaying all the horror stories in my head, I keep fretting over what I MUST know in order to be "ready" for all of this. I keep playing the WHAT IF game... While we have made preparations for MANY different scenarios, it just worries me.

I kept hearing the Lord tell me "Don't put Me in a Box! Don't tell me what I can do and what I can't do! Don't tell me how you think this is going to go down! I GOT THIS!! ... just BE STILL!"

As I'm reading through Genesis, everytime "WE" step in to Manufacture what we thought the Lord's plan was (see Abraham, Jacob, etc...) it all goes to BUNK! You'd think we'd learn something... ugggh.

Chris is always such an Amazing Blessing in my life... He reminds me that I can't "KNOW" everything there is to know... that Nash doesn't need me to "KNOW", he needs me to LOVE HIM! He needs me to be HIS MOMMY! He needs me to be his Cheerleader! He needs me to Be There - day in and day out!

I also got slapped a little with a very "off the cuff" statement that was made off handedly at our Adoptive Mom's Night Out this past Friday:

Our Highest Calling is *NOT* Parenting, being a Wife, being a Nurse, being a Daughter (Insert your own title).

Our Highest Calling is to LOVE THE LORD ABOVE ALL. Our Highest Calling is to BE HIS!! Our Highest Calling is to "DO" nothing and to just "Be"!

He continues to show me more of HIMSELF! What an Awesome God we serve. He is the FulFiller, the Sustainer, the PROMISE-KEEPER, and the Amazingly PATIENT One!

Make He make His Name GREAT among the Nations! All Glory to Him alone!

Waiting....

Only 22 more days until I get to hold my son.

It's all I can do to wait... Waiting is not something that I do very well. Not sure anyone quite has it mastered...but it's not something I do well.

I usually look at waiting as a task to be done. I wait from this date to this date. I can manage that. I can manage a wait that has a definite end. For example, once our Dossier went to Ethiopia, we were told it may be 4-6 weeks before it's registered and then we are assigned a court date. You better believe that once we got to 5 weeks, I was getting ANTSY! Up until the 5 week mark... I was fine! Then when we got the call in December that we were registered for Court, then it would 2-4 weeks before we had a date... I was FINE with that! Then, surprisingly, we got a call the NEXT WEEK with our Court Date!! YAY GOD!! But why wasn't it "YAY GOD" when our Dossier got sent, or our docs were registered? Just because they were "on time" or "LATE" does that not also require a "YAY GOD" from me???

I should not ONLY praise the LORD when things happen SOONER than expected. I should PRAISE HIM for every piece. That's a bit tougher. Just like many other parts of my life... How quickly I can Praise Him for the FUN STUFF, and how tough it is to Praise Him for the Not Fun stuff!! *ARE THEY NOT BOTH HIS?

Then, what is it about this definite end needed for my wait? Does it not say "Be still and Wait"? I'm sure that the Lord did not accidentally leave a stopping point off.... I think of Hebrews 11 and all those who came before who were unable to see the fulfilment of their waiting and working.

Have I become a task master? Seeking joy only in the completion?

My prayer is to ACTIVELY SEEK out the JOY in the WAITING, the JOY in the Interruption, the JOY in the Delay, the JOY in the Sadness, the JOY in the Trouble, the JOY in the Small Update, the JOY in the Journey... not only the JOY in the DESTINATION!

Most importantly... and ABOVE ALL... Should not the JOY OF MY SALVATION be the well-spring of my heart at any moment?