2011 reflections

If I wrote a post last New years Day I don't think I would have imagined that on New Years Day 2012, we would have completed paper work and be waiting for Mia to come home. I remember the first Sunday of 2011, I sat in church staring at a little girls face that looked like my girls at home yet she did not have a forever home. She was an orphan girl that had been abandoned once again. And so I felt that God was calling me, leading me to pray for this sweet, sad girl whose face stared at me through my phone. I prayed each Sunday and often throughout the week that her forever family would come and hold her close, wipe her tears and give reasons to laugh. I started to talk about her to Greg, then my kids then my mom. Asking them to also pray for her. My mom, being my "heart caretaker" because of her being a wonderful mother, took on the role of uh oh, what are you exactly asking me to pray for. I assured her I wanted her to pray that God would reveal her forever family. Through months of prayer and many doors that God had to open we have been chosen, blessed to be her forever family and so this began the first Sunday of 2011. And so now begins 2012. A year in which we will travel once again to China to be united with another daughter. A year when our first daughter will graduate college. A year that our next daughter may choose her college. A year when two little ones will continue to school at home learning together. The ABCs, and the 123s. But as exciting as all these plans may sound I know only God really knows what 2012 will hold for each of us.Isn't that reassuring! My prayer for 2012 is that our family will learn to rely more fully on God, and less on the world.

Jeremiah 29:11
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.