The Good, The Bad and the Ugly!

Good afternoon to all of our faithful family and friends!!!!  It is a beautiful day in sunny South Carolina and with that comes a smile on my face.  After months of rain, sunshine is always welcomed!  This relates well to my post today.

When God calls us to act, He doesn't promise that the road will be easy.  In fact, He tells us it will be difficult.  There will be trials and hard times.  There will be days that you want to give up.  But, He tells us that He will never leave us, nor forsake us.  He promises that His mercies are new every single morning.  Whatever your calling in life, God commands us to seek Him in all things.  This is easy peasy when the going is good.  But it is oh so difficult when things are hard.  

Over the last 6 months, there have been many days when life has been great.  There have been times, however, when I have been ready to give up!  Every single time I have felt this way, God has sent someone into our lives to encourage us and pick us up.  This is not an easy road.  Not only that, it is not going to be an easy road.  This road is hard and very lonely.  If you have ever adopted or are currently adopting, you understand.  My personality is a very positive one.  In fact, on our autobiography for the adoption, we had to answer questions regarding our personalities.  I am positive (to a fault) and Chris is negative (he calls it realist).  I try very hard to always look for the positive in life.  By doing that, sometimes I fear I may give the impression that life is always great.  

The selfish, spoiled little girl inside of me sometimes wants to sit down and not share my toys.  What do I mean by that?  There are times when I've dealt with all I can deal with, answered all the questions I can answer, cried more tears than I want to cry, stretched a dollar as far as I can possibly stretch it and poured my heart out as much as I can.  In those times, I just want to keep all the blessings that God has give to us to myself.  I want to take my toys and go home.  Oh, but God lovingly sits beside me and reassures me.  I've asked God, Why us?  Why would you choose us to be parents to possibly 2 more children.  There are days I can hardly parent the ones I have.  On those days, God says, Why not you?  I will give you all that you need for today.  And He does.  There are days that I have questioned the whole process.  But on those days, God points to the steps we have already taken.  He shows me that He has been the guide for every single step we have taken.  He has walked this with us and He is faithful and will walk the rest of the way with us.  There has not been even one day that I have doubted God.  The one I doubt is me.  I'm only human.  I can only do so much.  I can only love so much.  I can only give so much.  But God can do so much more.  God can love so much more.  God can give so much more.  And He is choosing to do that through us, a family of 5.  We are in this together.  We talk openly about this with our children.  We realize that there will be days that they might not want to walk this road either.  But God will be there to love them and guide them back to Him.  

It is very hard for me to share this post.  It's not my normal way.  But I felt that the only way for you all to see the reality of life was to hear my heart.  My human heart.  I choose today to live for God and do what He asks of me.  I will not question Him, I will simply obey.  This is a choice and I choose life.   

We love you all!
In His Grip,
Chris and Elizabeth