Thank you, God!!

When God is in control, look out world!

The Living Bible, in Ephesians 3:20-21 reads: "Now glory be to God who...is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of- infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes."

I just finished reading a book. At the end of it, the author quotes this scripture and reminds that we often forget we should "dare to ask" or expect blessings "beyond our highest hopes." She goes on to say that her goal is to "dream big, ask largely, praise Him generously and surrender what I think so the Lord can supply what He wants for me." What a great thought for us to ponder on as we, as a nation, thank God for all the blessings He has given us!

The huge backlog for completing the background checks was to have taken 10-15 business days to complete. So, I really wasn't looking for anything until the first part of December. Bummed out, knowing that God is doing this on His timetable, which is perfect, compared to mine, which us just fast :). So, I told anyone who would listen to pray that we would get these documents back more quickly. I believe I said to pray that the urgency I have in my heart and spirit to bring our son home would quickly spill over into the hearts of the people we are waiting on to finalize our paperwork.

When I left for work Friday, I had so much paperwork left to do. I contacted our friend, Jeri, who has been so awesome to notarize everything we've needed so we can bring home our son. I told her we had yet another pile to complete. This amazing woman, knowing that urgency we feel to get him home, came over Sunday morning before we left for church and notarized all 14 documents we had ready. We were so happy to share our photos, like the proud parents we are :)

WHHHhooo HOOooo!!! Yeah God!! You are awesome!! I know that this is the "season" for giving thanks- but wow- I am overwhelmed, yet again, by Your blessings in our lives!

We got our police clearances- the notarized ones- with duplicate originals so we can update both national and regional paperwork at the same time- on Sat- just 4 days after requesting them. Can you feel this amazing love that God our Father is pouring down on us? This is why we leave it in His hands!! So, Friday morning, only 2 documents ready to be apostilled, out of 30 for the regional paperwork and 12 to update national paperwork. Yesterday morning, I went to the Muskingum County courthouse, got 17 documents certified, mailed away 5 more to be certified in different counties, and copied the documents that evening we had ready to go- all 65 pages worth!

Our homestudy agency director, Therese, emailed to say that she has everything but one paper ready to go, and she'll be mailing it out soon- This is almost a third of our documents.

So, as I'm sitting here, still allowing some unease and a bit of stress to color my view, I began looking at the calender. Though I feel as if we've been away from our son forever, we just arrived home 2 weeks ago. I must share with you, though, these 2 weeks have felt longer than the last 2 weeks of school before Christmas break when we were children. The tree is up, presents under the tree, but we can't touch. My, how the time would drag by as you sat in class, contemplating what was in the package waiting for you.........seconds seem like minutes, ......minutes like hours, ..........hours like days ............and days like months.

I am so thankful to know that God is totally in control here. Otherwise, I know I'd most likely go crazy :) Of course, as any who know me know how focused I can get, I'll probably drive Tim crazy before I go there myself, as I try to get everything done that I can, as quickly as I can, and give him updates all along the way. I'm sure he'd appreciate your prayers for me that I can leave this totally in God's hands.

In this "season" of Thanksgiving, I thank God for the opportunity to pause for a minute. To consider how blessed we are, as a person, as a family and as a nation. My prayer is that we not get so hung up on the traditions, on rushing here and there, eating all that good food, wishing we had more room for that extra bit of dessert, that we miss the blessing of stopping what we are doing and thanking the One who makes it all possible. For so many things God, you know my heart, I thank you deeply and fervently. May this thankfulness carry on to every day, every minute, as we realize the extent of the blessings You've poured into our lives! And may God continue to bless you in ways that are "beyond your highest hopes!"

Thank you!