Memorial Day

We celebrated all weekend with family close by and another party for Elijah, but today, on this Memorial Day, it's a time to stop and remember, recollect, and give thanks. For many reasons, I am thankful. I don't have anyone close to me currently serving but my grandfather and grandmother proudly served their country during WWII. Grandpa even lost his brother in the D-Day invasion. But to all of you who faithfully and fearlessly serve, thank you. To those who gave their lives. Thank you.

Another thing I am stopping to remember and give thanks for on this day is where we were one year ago. We were so excited about the news of being chosen - and just two days later, 5/25/08, we got an email with 35 pages of additional paperwork and 15 bullet points of tasks to complete before we could get our son. I'm not going to lie, we were disappointed because the days to getting him seemed to grow since we had what seemed like a never-ending task list to complete.

But on this day a year ago I wrote out my requests, praying for background checks to not have to be repeated, a nurse to do a parenting class for us, we needed to become infant CPR certified, have our water tested, and complete all paperwork. What is more than remarkable is that I was able to go back in my journal and write a date of either 5/26 or 5/27 as the day that each prayer had been answered - EVERY SINGLE THING ON THE LIST ANSWERED WITHIN TWO DAYS! I want to be mindful of the fact that GOD HEARD AND ANSWERED OUR PRAYERS. He had brought us this far, surely He wasn't going to disappoint us. Even then, He had a perfect plan that was being worked out until completion. We still weren't clear when "Gotcha Day" would be at this point, being told we still had at minimum 2 to 4 weeks to wait, but even that was something God was going to take care of.

(Tune in over the next few days through May 31 to read further accounts of answered prayers and the days leading up to our placement. I can't wait to share with you how amazingly God worked.)