Happy New Year!

I am defintely not one for New Year's Resolutions. Something about resolutions and goal setting has always given this laid back mama the heebie-geebies. The thought of setting a goal and having steps to accomplish said goal, either makes me want to take a nap, or panic, or eat lots of candy.

However, come New Year's Eve, I always feel a little left out with no resolution to share. So, last year, I prayed that God would give me a word for the year. That is about as much as I can handle goal-wise. One word to set my focus. One word to fall back on and mull over.

For 2010, He gave me HOPE. This was a cool challenge for me as my grown-up self is not prone to hope- more likely to doubt or fret, than hope. When faced with an unknown outcome, I chose to hope for the better outcome instead of expecting the worst. And you know what- I loved it! It truly did change my outlook and more often than not- my reason to hope was founded after all.

This year, I will be holding onto HOPE, but adding PEACE. I started praying for my new word for the year last week and PEACE kept coming to my mind. My devotional reading for today was also about peace which just confirmed it for me.

One thing I do with my "word of the year" is look up every reference to it in the Bible and choose my favorites. I haven't done that yet with PEACE (though I am looking forward to it!). I will leave you with my favorite HOPE verse this year:

Hebrews 10:23
Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

Trusting Him

As you know, soon we will be adding a precious new daughter into our family. She is about nine or ten years old. When one goes about researching how to successfully add an older child to your family through adoption, the information out there can only be described as harrowing. Makes me glad I didn't do much research before saying yes to adopting an older child (outside of searching God' s heart on the matter)! These children can have many issues like attachment disorders, post traumatic stress, intense grieving, educational problems, ugly behavioral issues, etc.

I asked a friend for advice on how to prepare. She said, "why don't you just expect the worst and then you'll be pleasantly surprised with the good moments". Sounded wise to me, at first. I've taken this approach before in other situations countless times.

But something felt wrong this time.

Is it wise for a Christian to take this view? I mean, I trusted that God led us to this child. Yes, it may be a very difficult road, but it in the path God chose for us. He promises to take care of us. Shouldn't I chose to expect the best and trust God for the hard parts?

Expecting the worst causes me to worry and fret. Expecting the best fills me with hope (and hope is my word for the year 2010). When I have hope, I jump over my concerns.

"The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him"

Nahum 1:7

I am choosing hope today. About what do you need to choose hope?

I-797 Approval!!!

Today I got our approval notice from Homeland Security- the Immigration folks!!! This is a huge step to bring home our daughter. I can't tell you how many worries I had about all the reasons we might not get approved (mostly crazy constructs of my imagination). We even got the approval much earlier than I was expecting.

Now, all of our paperwork goes to Washington DC and then off to Burkina. The wait on that end is typically about 3-4 months. But you know what? I'm thinking it won't take that long. You know why? HOPE.

I asked God for a word to meditate on specifically for 2010. HOPE is the word He gave me. Hebrews 11:1 is the verse.

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see."