SHOWERS OF BLESSINGS!

Psalm 100: 4- 5
Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise;
give thanks to Him and praise His name.
For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
His faithfulness continues through all generations.

Well we have been and are continuing to enter His gates with thanksgiving in our hearts.  We are entering the Lord's courts with not just praise but LOUD praise!  The past few weeks have been AMAZING!!!  First of all our church & family have poured out an abundance of love, encouragement, and prayers on us.  We had a baby shower at our church on Sunday, February 13th.  Let me just start off by saying it was the BEST baby shower I have ever been to.  I'm so glad it was ours.  The corsages were a hoot!  I had a little crown with some fur trim on it and it stated "princess".  The had given me gloves, and an adorable pink purse.  In addition, they even gave me a tiara!  I always knew I was a princess and now I could share that with the world. :0)   Joseph had a crown that matched mine but of course I had all of the bling on my crown.  The shower started off with a friend of ours giving us a book and of course it was a "princess" book. In it was a copy of our blog.  She started reading from the very first blog.  Joseph and I just started balling when she began to read.  We were just totally overwhelmed by what the Lord has done in our lives and on this adoption journey. Then instead of the guests signing "the book", she asked everyone to write prayers for us.  But the next part was absolutely the BEST part of the shower.  All of the people gathered around us and laid hands on us and covered us with prayer.  Oh my gosh......the water works were going.  It was such a sweet and tender moment....words can't adequately explain how we felt.  It was so awesome to hear people go before the throne and intercede on our behalf.  Joseph and I know that without our prayer warrior friends this would not be happening.  We are so thankful that we have people in our lives that go before the throne and just ask the Holy Spirit to intercede on our behalf.  Wow!  That was a special time!  The one thing that we have enjoyed the most is seeing our church family really unite over this adoption.  It's exciting to see how excited everyone is around us for Elizabeth Grace to arrive.  Joseph and I not only think this is "our" baby but she is really here because of everyone contributing time, energy, money, prayers, and encouragement and without all of our friends and family she would never be coming home with us.  So in some aspect she is really all of "ours".  We thank you for being willing to say prayers on our behalf, for saying encouraging words, helping us financially, for giving us advice, for just being there for us.  Ok back to the shower......After the prayers were lifted up, it was time for some good ole fellowship as we like to say in the Baptist church.  We would open up all of the beautiful gifts and show them to everyone.  I felt like we were in the middle of Wheel of Fortune by all of the ooooooo's and ahhhhhh's and Ohhhhhhh's.   It was a great feeling.  We were very blessed because we did not have a thing for this little one except for a crib without a mattress.  We now have have everything she needs.  We still need bottles, and everyday things but we were truly blessed by the gifts we received on Elizabeth Grace's behalf.

Then our next adventure was this past weekend!  On Sunday, February 20th, we met the birth mom.  Talk about needing prayers that day.  I was very nervous.....would she like us, what should I wear, what will we say, will we have anything in common, will she be ok with us having this baby....all of these things and many others were going through, at least my mind.  Believe it or not....I get very quiet when I am nervous.  On the way to meet her, I must have said about 5 words to Joseph.  I just keep praying the entire time we were headed that way.  Let me just say it was AMAZING to meet her.  The birth mom was very sweet, funny, had a good laugh, likes Disney, is very smart, and has a tender heart.  We talked about all kinds of things with her from family life, to church, to the adoption, and to everyday life.  We spent about 5 hours with her on Sunday.  Once again we saw the hand of God in this adoption.  We got to hear her side of the story of how she decided to go with adoption.  It was so cool to see how God was working on her end and how He was working on our end and orchestrated all of us coming together in this moment.  I know I have said it before but it needs to be repeated.  God perfectly places people in our lives.  God perfectly places us in a position to do what He wants us to do.  If we are obedient, His will .....will be accomplished.  God's timing is perfect.  We may not know today why we are where we are, but God sees the entire picture.  He is working on this puzzle that we call life.  God knows with whom we need to be connected to and what the big picture is and how it should look when it is completed.  We just have to say, "OK Lord.  Here I am connect me with whom you want me to connect with.  Let me accomplish what you want me to accomplish for you glory."  We know this to be true not only through this adoption journey but in our journey of life.  Joseph and I can go back and look at each place that we have lived and tell you why we think we were there.  We can tell you the people that have made an imprint on our lives and what lessons we have taken with us to be where we are today.  God perfectly placed all the jigsaw puzzle pieces and we can look back and see what the big picture was.  I am sure if you look back on your life, you will see that too.  When you look back, remember that even if your not "feeling" like you are being used by the Lord or you don't "feel" like being used, God is still in control and He has the plan.  He is working on your big picture....

The last part of the verse states:
For the Lord is good and His love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Through all of our showers of blessing we know that the Lord is good and His love endures forever. We also know that His faithfulness will continue through all generations and it will be continued through Elizabeth Grace and the generations that come after her.  We are truly blessed!