Reasons to Be Thankful

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, 

give thanks in all circumstances; 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."  

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

I received a phone call from our case worker the other day (which by the way, if you are looking for an awesome, God-honoring, caring, and encouraging agency to adopt through, I would suggest Lifeline Children's Services) and as we talked about the current situation in our adoption process I thought, "This is a great moment to be thankful, prayerful and trust in God's timing and will."  Which led me to the verses above.
Well, let me back up and fill you in on what's going on in the process...Basically, the long and short of it is that slow is the new normal.  With where we are on the waiting list (which is still very high) and the average of how many kids that have been placed in the past year (which is pretty low), it could be approximately 7 years.  (Insert everyone freaking out and making funny faces, jaw dropping, etc).  There is no need to worry though.  We are taking all of these facts in stride and trusting in the Lord's timing on things.
We would ask you to continue praying for us!  We are praying about what the next step for our family will look like.  In other words, we are praying about changing countries or possibly adopting domestically.  We have a strong desire to have a child join our family through adoption and we also would like to have more bio-babies (a term our adoption group uses in reference to biological kids :)).  So as a result we feel that we are on a crunched timeline.

Something tells me that this is not the end of the road for having kids joining our family.  And let me tell you, once you say "yes" to whatever the Lord is calling you to, you are in for a wild ride.  We've said "yes" and are seeing all kinds of possibilities on this journey.

With all the craziness of life, I'd like to share a few reasons to be thankful.  These are on my personal list this week, but you can add them to your's as well!  There really are a lot of reasons to be thankful.

Reasons to be thankful:
1. It's God's will!  No matter what this world will throw at us, God says we are to be thankful.  For those who are Christ followers, our lives should overflow with thanksgiving resulting in God receiving glory and people who don't Christ coming to believe in Him.
2. We have all of you supporting us!  What an interesting journey to find ourselves on and knowing that all of you are praying for us, supporting us through your encouragement, and giving so generously to help make this adoption happen at all makes this learning process so much more enjoyable!  Please don't stop asking questions about the process even though it's slow.  We love to hear from you and like to give reports (and one day look forward to the big news that we are going to get our child).
3. We are experiencing growth spiritually through this process.  I journal and I love to look back and see how far I've come and all that has been learned along the way.  This adventure is one that I am not going to regret going on and pray that we continue to know God more through it.

We hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;

for his steadfast love endures forever!"

Psalm 118:1