blessed beyond a curse

ya know there's plenty of people out there today who call this world cursed and abandoned by god, and in some ways i see their perspective. with all the turmoil and pain in this world it's easy to think that there is no god and if there was he's turned his back on us to attend to "other" things. well these past couple of months have renewed my hope that god's blessings go far beyond the curse. we've been trying to have kids for  a couple years now and about last year at this time felt like god was calling us to pursue adoption. at first it felt a little defeating to feel like god wouldn't have this for us. a curse was what rested on my mind as i thought about the implications and struggles we'd had in the past. at the same time with doctors finding nothing wrong with either of us, we felt assured that god was controlling the situation to whatever end. 

we completed our home study last may(ish) and then hurriedly prepared for the waiting. as we waited a few opportunities came and went with no real peace from god that they'd come thru. then about 2 months ago, a good friend contacted us about a little girl named arianna that lived in michigan and was looking for a new home. our hearts sparked with hope as the news seemed possible. on our way home for the holidays we stopped and met little ari and her grandparents, whom she was living with at the time. they were great folks who loved her very much, and in that love wanted her to find the right family to grow up with. our hearts and minds buzzed as we drove the next ten hours home to pennsylvania for the holidays. we had a wonderful time with family and friends showing off pictures of the little cutie who'd already taken our hearts after only a couple hours. we decided to again visit on our return trip. 

from that time we visited a couple more times while we waited for court dates and legal stuff with the adoption agency. each time we took off we cringed at the thought of leaving her, but hoped that soon we'd be making our last trip. well, court dates moved forward, and all of a sudden we were only a week out from bringing little ari home. as of last thursday we're now officially a family of 3. 

it's been incredible to see god work out the details. he's been so good. it's also been humbling to see our community step up to support us thru this transition and thru the expense involved in adoption. we have been so incredibly blessed with friends who love us dearly. ari has already brought us so much joy and we're excited to teach her who god is and how he's writing her life story. 

all that to say we've been blessed beyond the curse, chosen to be sons and daughters of the king. my prayer is that god will show you who he is. much love my friends