Finding true Joy

Has it really only been THREE WEEKS since we received our "On Deck" e-mail?  I was laughing as I talked to Josh the other day that it already feels like its been three years.  Seriously though, God is continually teaching us something through each step of the process.  Josh and I had a chance to go out on a date night last Friday and we were talking about the adoption and that God is teaching us a lot about Himself through the process.  As we approach the two year mark of beginning the process, some might wonder if we still glad we made this decision.   I am so very very glad that God does not tell us everything we might go through and he doesn't lay out the entire plan in front of us.  We as humans are so weak that often times I think (sadly) we might run in the other direction if we knew everything we would go through in order to become more like our Savior.  So, as I thought a lot about that "are we still glad" decision this weekend, the answer is absolutely.  We truly and honestly believe that God has a little guy for us and we are willing to step out in faith no matter the cost.  I was reading my women's Bible study book this weekend and several sentences that the author wrote hit me like a TON of bricks.  Check this out:

            "The truth is, God is far more interested in our holiness than in our immediate, temporal
            happiness-He knows that apart from being holy, we can never truly be happy."

           "We say we want to be like Jesus, and then we resist the very instrument God chooses to
            fulfill that desire." 

           "True joy is not the absence of pain but the sanctifying, sustaining presence of the Lord    
             Jesus IN THE MIDST of the pain."

We continue to pray and know that God has us right where he wants us.  We are so very ready to see our son's face and we continue to pray that will happen very soon.  I love this crazy complicated mess called adoption.  After all, its this crazy complicated mess called adoption that allows US to be God's children.   OH GLORIOUS DAY!