We get to keep her!!! . . . July 19, 2011

Well, the past two days have been full of peace overall, with varying emotions in between.  All weekend, it seemed God was lovingly letting me know that He would be with me, but that we wouldn't have Janice this week.  And while I could feel it, I still held out hope just in case He opted to do a miracle of some sort just to make me happy.  But yesterday, I finally came to terms with the fact that Janice going to camp was in God's master plan and I was to accept it.  I actually got excited about her being at the Royal Family Kids Camp and checked out the website again.  It's such an awesome camp for foster kids run by Christians who love on them big time!  I began praying for the lady that will be spending the week with her and praying for the camp in general, and asked my facebook friends to please pray for the camp this week.  So thankful God brought me full circle!

On Monday, I began school shopping, partly to keep me busy and partly because we return from vacation four days before school begins.  It was fun getting some supplies for our 5th grader!  While I had hoped she could go with me and pick out some of the stuff, I knew it needed to be done and at least know her favorite color!  We got the call yesterday that our social worker had talked with Janice's worker to set up a time for us to get her.  He had suggested Saturday afternoon to give her time to get back from camp on Friday, get some sleep, and pack up her stuff.  She said she would get back to him later that afternoon or the following day.  Somehow hearing that we would have to wait with still no definites once again kinda did me in.  Scott seemed ok with it all though, and we began talking about how we wanted to handle vacation since we were supposed to go Friday, but really wanted her to experience our whole vacation with us!  Later, I just gave it all up to God again and knew that we would know soon and it wasn't worth my frustration.

Thankfully, my parents had called and encouraged us to come to Sacramento for a lunch visit with them since they were still in town.  Then I had one of my dearest friends ask if the kids and I wanted to go swimming at her mom's house near the Sacramento area (something we do each summer together).  It was a great idea, a fun distraction for the day, and we all had a great time!  I was thankful God gave me a relaxed "summer day" in the midst of our waiting!

This morning as I traveled, I heard a Natalie Grant song (as well as a ton of other encouraging songs) on KLove that so expressed how I've been dealing with life lately.  It's called "In Better Hands," and the words that stuck out to me were "it's like the sun is shining when the rain is pouring down."  I have so felt God shining through each moment, but sometimes I just want the rain to stop.  Rain is a good thing I know, but sometimes it's just a frustration and hassle to me (like when I don't want to get my hair messed up or when I have outdoor plans).  Then I heard Mandisa's song about how "this is going to make you stronger, stronger."  This song talks about the weather as well, and reminds you to "hold on and let Him hold your hand."  I also had verses like "He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it," and "Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways submit to him, and He will make your path straight" going through my head.  So thankful God used friends to remind me of these great truths!

I  really thought I'd hear something by noon, but no phone call came.  I finally heard back around 3pm that we could pick her up on Sunday, July 24th and KEEP HER!!!  While I knew we would get to keep her all along, it finally felt real.  The foster family would say their goodbyes on Saturday evening, and they would have some time to pack her things and have her ready.  I felt a huge peace that we had an actual day and found myself smiling about it all.  When I called to tell Scott, he seemed really sad.  He was hoping for Saturday, and this kinda bummed him out.  I guess it's really good that we both go through these different feelings at separate times.

We talked about our plans more and decided we would go ahead and leave for vacation on Friday and go pick her up as a family on Sunday.  We will leave for vacation as a family of 5 and return as a family of 6!  We decided we wouldn't do any major fun stuff on Saturday so Janice can experience all the "good times" with us, but would have a lazy day around the house.  We know of a church out there that we can attend on Saturday evening and will spend Sunday morning talking about how our family would be changing forever today and praying for Janice to feel very loved and for the transition to go smoothly.  We hope to have a small celebration with her on Sunday and let her know how happy we are that she is in our family!  And I am so happy I don't have to take her back to another home ever again!  She will come home to her home forever!  One really cool thing about that date is that a very good friend, my former boss at the adoption agency, and one of the people that was very influential in helping us to begin the process of adoption happens to have his birthday on that date.  Love how God does stuff like that!

So, now I'm in the process of getting everything ready for school, making sure all the mail is caught up, cleaning the house before we leave, packing mode.  I'm thinking this is a good thing and God knew it would get me through this time.  Thank you all so much for your prayers and love - it truly means more than you know and I can feel the prayers lifting our family up continually!

Oh, and dragonfly count for just today - I saw 7 . . . I'm telling you, it's crazy!