Like I said, this adoption thing is hard.
That's ok, though. We never expected anything less. I never had some pretty little picture in my head about how things would be that has now become painfully blurred. Like I shared with my friend this morning, I've tried to read about the experiences of others to some degree. However, I do not seek out those clean, white-washed stories. I prefer the blood, sweat, and tears truth....
I'm practical. A realist by nature. I'm usually suspicious of those quaint, "pretty pictures".
My history of following God has rarely been pretty or easy.
{Although I am keenly aware that I know nothing of real hardship or sacrifice}
Certainly, in time, I've seen Him personally bring beauty from ashes, but that's usually after the Refiner's fire has done its work...often after much scorching, cauterizing, and all that entails
being reduced to ashes has taken place...the beauty, then, begins to emerge.
Even without some Christmas-card-kind-of-dream regarding adoption, expecting nothing
less than excruciating trials, heartache and heartbreak, I know that there's no real way to brace for things that lie ahead for us. Each family is different. The challenges will be different. The strategies and learning curves are all different.
While, previously, I only shared the brutally honest, imperfect, real-life pictures a few courageous women dared to paint for the sake of others, there was more to their adoption stories. Much more. Beauty to ashes pictures at their finest.
While I do expect much of the same in regard to the trials, the frustrations, the lonliness, the helplessness, the heartbreak, the emptiness, the doubt.…
I also expect....
to encounter the Healer
he Redeemer
the Potter
the Shepherd
the Hiding Place
the very heart of The Father to the fatherless
....in ways that I never have before.
I expect....
transformation
healing
redemption
“grace upon grace”
displaced mountains
sanctification
restoration
"immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us"
I expect....
when we pass through the waters, He will be with us;
when we pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over us.
when we walk through the fire, we will not be burned;
the flames will not set us ablaze. {from Isaiah 43:2}
I expect that nothing about this adoption journey
{as is evidenced in our lives in general up to this point}
to be anything close to a clean, white-washed story.
We put our hope and trust in the One who gives us far more than a white-washed anything....
"though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow..."!
That's ok, though. We never expected anything less. I never had some pretty little picture in my head about how things would be that has now become painfully blurred. Like I shared with my friend this morning, I've tried to read about the experiences of others to some degree. However, I do not seek out those clean, white-washed stories. I prefer the blood, sweat, and tears truth....
I'm practical. A realist by nature. I'm usually suspicious of those quaint, "pretty pictures".
My history of following God has rarely been pretty or easy.
{Although I am keenly aware that I know nothing of real hardship or sacrifice}
Certainly, in time, I've seen Him personally bring beauty from ashes, but that's usually after the Refiner's fire has done its work...often after much scorching, cauterizing, and all that entails
being reduced to ashes has taken place...the beauty, then, begins to emerge.
Even without some Christmas-card-kind-of-dream regarding adoption, expecting nothing
less than excruciating trials, heartache and heartbreak, I know that there's no real way to brace for things that lie ahead for us. Each family is different. The challenges will be different. The strategies and learning curves are all different.
While, previously, I only shared the brutally honest, imperfect, real-life pictures a few courageous women dared to paint for the sake of others, there was more to their adoption stories. Much more. Beauty to ashes pictures at their finest.
While I do expect much of the same in regard to the trials, the frustrations, the lonliness, the helplessness, the heartbreak, the emptiness, the doubt.…
I also expect....
to encounter the Healer
he Redeemer
the Potter
the Shepherd
the Hiding Place
the very heart of The Father to the fatherless
....in ways that I never have before.
I expect....
transformation
healing
redemption
“grace upon grace”
displaced mountains
sanctification
restoration
"immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us"
I expect....
when we pass through the waters, He will be with us;
when we pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over us.
when we walk through the fire, we will not be burned;
the flames will not set us ablaze. {from Isaiah 43:2}
I expect that nothing about this adoption journey
{as is evidenced in our lives in general up to this point}
to be anything close to a clean, white-washed story.
We put our hope and trust in the One who gives us far more than a white-washed anything....
"though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow..."!