The Wall Bloggers

Today we celebrate two years since meeting our baby boy.  (See  Our long-awaited referral  for more.)  Two years since we first saw Abel's picture on our computer screen and Scott and I cried happy tears, knowing that we were staring into the face of our second child.  Two years since we spent a spring in agony, waiting for permission to pick up our child. Oh, what blessings since that day two years ago.  God brought us to the boy He chose for us.  He prepared him for our family and our family for him.  Two  years ago today, Scott and I "met" and fell in love with a picture of a boy -- our boy -- the one God chose. Happy referral-versary, Abel.  We love you.

"I have a dream that one day ... little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers." from Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" My 1,000 gifts from the last week... - The work done by Martin Luther King, Jr. and so many others, so pave a way for my children to grow up in a country where their skin color matters so much less than it once did - Making a colored egg carton craft that Adrianna saw on PBS one day months ago  - Adrianna's first school friend play date - Playing "beans" with Abel, Adrianna, and Adrianna's friend from school - Working with Adrianna to find a fun way to play with the sit 'n spin with colored pencils  - Abel's letter train - Abel playing with the ABC board all the way to and from our weekly errand run - Adrianna and Abel helping me make allergy-free biscuits  ... And Abel deciding the flour should be used like lotion  - T

I am surrounded with friends and family in difficult situations presently.  How can I tell them, show them gratitude?  It sounds so trite: "Be thankful in all things." When my own contentment is still so tenuous, fragile, how can I say, "Make the choice to be thankful"?   But it is Life.  This, this acknowledgement that all is from God, all is filtered through His grace.  Life does not all feel like grace, like kindness.  How can we trust God to give us the good and not trust Him when He gives us the bad -- especially because we do not even know whether a thing is good or bad? Job found a way to do it:  "He gives and He takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord."  And his deep, life-wrenching gratitude came after sitting in wretched loneliness, discomfort, and fear.  Is there a way to come to that place before... before we lose it all? Starting from December 27, there are many of God's gifts to catch up on... - Abel: "Mom, I wanna play you-c