Life Lesson Number 53985... God always has a reason!

So... An update for all our blog readers! Both adoption cases for M and E were submitted to court on Tuesday!! Now we wait for them to assign a court date for us, in which we'll then make our first trip to meet our boys and attend Ethiopian court! My heart was filled with joy as I read the e-mail. Things are finally starting to feel real and it makes my heart ache that much more for our sweet Ethiopian boys! Once we attend and pass court, it's good news for all of you, too! We'll finally get to share their photos with you all! I know you all will love them just as much as we do!!!

Now, as for our life lesson... God has used this whole adoption process to mold, refine, and condition our hearts to His will. He has broken our hearts for what breaks His, taught us patience (which is an ongoing lesson for me!), that ALL our hope and trust should be in Him, and that most of all, HE is in control. This is HIS adoption. This is HIS plan. And His plan is SO much more perfect than ours...

You see, a few months ago, we were in the process of buying our house. We wanted to be all moved and settled into a permanent home before we brought M home, and turns out that buying a house (actually the same model we had been renting!) would end up costing us just as much as we were renting for. It made perfect sense! But as the buying process went on, problems began to happen. Things took longer than we planned. We thought we would close by the first of March. We didn't. It dragged on for exactly 3 weeks long as we were in limbo of no house (due to our lease ending at the end of February). Thank goodness for my sweet sister and brother-in-law! They let us stay at their house and we were so appreciative! Although we were happy to stay at their house, we were SO ready to be in our new home. We were frustrated on why it was taking so long and with every delay, I got more frustrated and upset, instead of trusting that maybe, just maybe, it was for a reason... I was so ready to get moved in so we could get our homestudy done and get our dossier finished ASAP so we could be on our way to adopt M! Finally, after 3 weeks, we closed and moved in.

Now, here we are... What was the lesson learned? Sometimes, God has a better plan... He allowed our house to be delayed because He knew that we were to adopt E. But... If our house wouldn't have been delayed, all our paperwork would've been turned in and we would've been submitted for court for just M, before our referral of E. You see, our house was delayed exactly 3 weeks. Our case was just submitted to court on Tuesday. If our house was not delayed, all our paperwork would've been turned in and submitted to court exactly 3 weeks earlier. Which would've been ONE day before we got our referral of E. Meaning, E would not even be becoming a part of our family if our house would've closed on our time...

Life lesson number 53985? Always trust God and His timing. Because sometimes, if it were all on your plan, something precious, like a sweet little baby boy named E***, would not be becoming a part of our family... And the thought of that breaks my heart. So, I must make the conscious decision to always, ALWAYS praise God, even when things aren't going the way I want it to... Because something like a petty 3 week delay can change our lives for the good forever! God is AMAZING and I must always remember that!


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Also, just an FYI, the HOPE, BLESSED, and PRAY bracelets should be getting here very soon! Anyone who has paid already will get them as soon as we get them! Don't forget to order if you haven't, via the Current Fundraisers tab! They are first come, first serve and are going fast! :)