Immeasurably More

THEY KNOW. We found out late last Friday afternoon that the in-country social worker had met with the kids to tell them about us. According to our lawyer, the kids were excited and the older girls wanted to know where they would attend school and if it would be in Spanish or English.

They will be meeting with the social worker on a weekly basis through the end of September, with a tentative date for us to meet the kids in country on October 3rd. That would put us back in Tennessee in mid-late November, or early December, depending on how long everything takes once we arrive in Costa Rica. While it's a bit later than we were expecting, it does give us more time to plan, save, and set up travel arrangements, so God's timing is always perfect. 

One thing that we recently learned was that ours is the largest set of siblings being adopted together that our lawyer and social worker have worked with, and possibly the largest sibling set ever adopted from Costa Rica (that we know of - there are other agencies, lawyers, social workers, and orphanages in country). Our in-country representatives are quite excited about that. 

We can't share photos until the children are legally ours (after we're in country), but we can tell you that they are ADORABLE. From what we've seen so far, the personalities that come across seem to be a good fit for us - which isn't surprising. God's the best at writing our stories, right? 

As we get closer and closer to the end of this phase of the adoption journey, I find myself overwhelmed... but probably not in the way you are thinking. I am overwhelmed that God would choose us to raise these children. I am honored and humbled that out of all the people in this world who seem better suited for the work - God called us. Most of the time I feel like Paul, the least likely candidate for the job to which God has called me. But as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15:10...

"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me."

I love the fact that God took two, extremely-vocal-about-not-being-kid-people, people, who never wanted to be parents, and decided that they needed 5 children to raise for Him. God has a sense of humor. Guess what? We're STILL not kid people. BUT, you know what? We are both excited about these 5 kids that He is entrusting to us. I love that God made us all so very different, and that He uses those differences for His glory when we are willing to bend our will to His. I love that this story - from start to finish - isn't our idea, doesn't fit our plan, and couldn't be more out of the box. Glory to God in the highest!

"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." {Ephesians 3:20-21}