It All Belongs to God

The following is just ramblings from my heart that I wrote awhile ago and thought I'd share with you all some things we've learned along the way.....

It's really not about us but about His grace that sustains us through trials and frustrations. Before we were matched with Hannah and just collecting paperwork, we lived for each day's mail. Our collecting of documents to China took nine long months. We had 16 documents that made up our dossier (the stack of papers that goes to China that describes our family and who we are) and almost every single one of those had some sort of issue due to negligence on the part of someone in charge. Very frustrating. It got to the point that Dan would come home and say, "What's the latest saga?" One day he said to me, "Doesn't it just make you want to scream?" My response was, "No, I just want to cry because each day we don't get this document is one more day that Hannah spends without us and we without her!" When all was said and done our dossier was almost a half an inch thick. 

We were matched with Hannah (Fu Rui) on Ocotber 4. I remember that call vividly. It was 11:10 in the morning. We were sitting on the couch schooling. I answered the phone and Dana, from our agency, was on the other end. I asked her how she was and she said, "I am fine, but you are going to be even better by the end of this call!" She proceeded to tell which child we had been matched with and it was the little girl who had grown in my heart deeply. (I was so sure that she was ours that one morning I woke up and announced to our family that she was the one. They looked at me like I was insane.) While we were wildly rejoicing that we were finally matched with our daughter, the hardest thing was knowing that when she was cold, hungry, or crying we weren't there to comfort her or provide for her! We hold fast in knowing that we serve a God who protects these helpless ones left in situations that grieve His heart. 

I found this poem and thought I'd share it with you all....

Kisses in the Wind

We hold you in our hearts and touch you in our dreams.

You are here with us, at least that's how it seems.

We know you wonder where we are...what's taking us so long.

But remember child, We love you so and God will keep you strong.

Now go outside and feel the breeze and let it touch your skin...

Because tonight, just as always, We blow you kisses in the wind.

May God hold you in His hand until we can be with you.

We promise you, our darling, We are doing all that we can do.

Very soon, you'll have a family for real, not just pretend.

But for tonight, just as always, We blow you kisses in the wind.

May God wrap you in His arms and hold you very tight.

And let the angels bring the kisses that we send to you each night.

--Unknown

This journey has made us realize even more that ALL belongs to God. That God does have the best in mind for us even if it doesn't seem like it at the time and that all things are for HIS glory and in HIS timing. Sometimes the most discouraging times are the times that we see God working His wonders in our lives. I think that He delights in knowing that we serve Him with our hands held palms up in relinquishment of all that we think we are and think about how things should be so that we can praise Him for who He is so that He can use us warts and all for His glory. Reminds me of that old hymn....Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to Thee; Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of Thy love. Take my love, my God, I pour at Thy feet its treasures store; Take myself and I will be ever only, all for Thee.

All for His glory.