Let me back up a minute . . .
After a full and enjoyable day, we slept well on Wednesday night. Praise the Lord!
We woke up Thursday morning knowing that this was THE day. The day we had been waiting for since first we had seen Lyv's face almost 15 months before. The day we would meet our beautiful daughter and finally claim her as our own forever.
We got cleaned up, ate and skyped with the bigs. Then we spent the rest of our morning getting our hearts and our minds prepared for the enormity of what we were about to experience. I am always amazed and grateful for the Holy Spirit's use of God's powerful Word in my heart. God has been so faithful to me.
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This week in Korea and this day in particular were a real test for my frail kind of heart. I KNOW my heart and life belong to the God of the universe and I am a member of His worry-free, already victorious Kingdom through faith in His Son's death alone BUT my self-focused heart screams an allegiance to the kingdom of this world to what is temporary to what I think I can control.
SO . . . I struggle with anxiety at times. I fear things and worry about things that do not deserve my fear or my sinful worry. BUT GOD . . . always answers me when I humbly lay my weak, sinful self at His gracious and merciful feet. He always forgives. He always strengthens. He always provides for my spirit when I ask (read beg) for His sustanence. For me it really is a daily, even hourly, discipline to surrender my weakness to His strength. . . My pseudo control to His sovereign control. . . My worry to His almighty, trustworthy plan.
And this day, this moment and the weeks since have provided non-stop opportunities to either fear and worry or trust and rest.
I posted this section here for a couple of reasons.
1. Keeping it real folks. Sometimes people think that someone else certainly has it all together. No one really has it all together. I think, The people who have it together the most are those who realize how untogether they really have it and rest on the Grace of God to sustain and grow them today and over their spiritual journey that takes a lifetime.
2. Maybe worry and fear are battles you face, too. The two Bible-based books that have been the most helpful to me in this area are Running Scared by Ed Welch and Overcoming Fear, Worry and Anxiety by Elyse Fitzpatrick.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled "Family Day" post.
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In Korea, gift-giving is a treasured tradition. Our agency encourages its families to give gifts to the foster family, the social worker and the medical and office staff at Holt Korea. It was a daunting task to consider and buy meaningful gifts for the people in Korea who have done so much to help our daughter become our daughter. But we did it, over time, mind you. We did it.
We had planned to buy flowers for our social worker and for the doctor who had done Alyvia's bi-monthly well baby checkups. We found a flower shop around the corner from our hotel and it seemed to be open all the time. So, we had just planned to go to that shop on the morning of our family day and buy the flowers we needed for these two special ladies.
As luck would have it =), we went to that flowershop a little before noon and IT WAS CLOSED!!! Ugh! We even knocked on the window. I have no idea the cultural implications of knocking on the window of a closed business, but we were desperate. Still no one came.
We decided to go get our chocolate milk treat for our first meeting with Alyvia then come back and hope the shop was open by then. We prayed on our way that God would please let the flowershop be open when we came back. We verbally yielded to His will in this matter.
15 minutes later with chocolate milk (which she hated BTW) in hand, we returned to the flowershop. And it was OPEN. Whew and WAAAAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOO!
We lost a little in translation, but ended up with some beautiful flowers for two beautiful women. =)
We needed to leave for Holt by 12:45 and when we got back with the flowers it was 12:35. No time to worry now. We needed to grab our stuff and head to Holt.
And guess what?? I'm out of blogging time. . . I guess this will be a two parter.
Happy Saturday, All!
I hope you spend your Sunday with your church family corporately worshiping the Great God of the Bible, being equipped for every good work and as always simply grateful for the adoption as first born sons He offered to you through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ. 