Finalization!

Hello from your severely delinquent blogger! Yes, we finalized! As planned on April 10, 2014, at 4:30 it was so ordered that Adele Hope and Violet Mae are FOREVER ours! Thank you for your prayers dear dear friends. We would not have made it without them.
   Dear Birthmom of Addie and Violet had a baby this week. Boyfriend wants to give it up for adoption, birthmom says "she can't do it". What a sad world. She really has no stability in her life yet and I do not know how she is going to take care of him/her. Our social worker asked us if we were open to a baby. Our hearts said, "No". But at this time birthmom is going to keep him/her (haven't heard the gender yet) and so we do not need to make a decision. Makes my heart heavy, tho. All the little children around the world.... Yet, Jesus loves them, this I know.
   And then....I've been thinking....of my dear friends.
On an emotional rollercoaster.
The lonely battle.
You can't just talk about it because... well just because.
The tears.
The empty arms.
The elephant in the room.
The funeral that nobody comes to.
The longing.
The hoping.
Hope crushed.
Again.
And again.
The barren desert called infertility.
Harder to say than cancer, yet just as painful.
Probably more painful for some than others, but always painful.
If someone you know is in this desert... Reach out. Care. Love. And. give. a. lot. of. room.

Acceptance is a choice, yet a journey.

A song that has been near and dear to my heart lately as I feel for my friends in this desert is this:
Give Them All to Jesus -by Phil Johnson and Bob Benson
Are you tired of chasing pretty rainbows?
Are you tired of spinning 'round and 'round?
Wrap up all the shattered dreams of your life,
And at the feet of Jesus lay them down.

Cho: Give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus; shattered dreams, wounded hearts, and broken toys. Give them all, give them all, give them all to Jesus; And He will turn your sorrow into joy!

He never said you'd only see sunshine;
He never said there'd be no rain.
He only promised a heart full of singing
About the very things that once brought pain.

Life is a long lesson in submission.
In lying limp in my Father's hand.
In letting go.
In absolutely and unwaveringly believing in God.
Because He is God.
And there we find that...
Joy is not the absence of sorrow, but Joy is the presence of God.  -Margaret Penner Toews