Rejoice!

Rejoice in the Lord Always. I will say it again, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4

Today I woke up rejoicing; Gabe had gone 9 hours without Tylenol or Motrin and woke up fever free! The healing properties of little children's bodies are amazing! I'm fairly certain had I been fighting a raging fever all weekend I would not have woken up neither as happy nor spunky as Gabe did.

So I rejoiced through breakfast and working out but just before Gabe's Help Me Grow appointment (more on that later) I decided to check my email. Ack!! I should NOT have checked my email right before I had to be able to think straight to update Gabe's therapy plan.

Like so many of my friends in this adoption world, we are reeling just a bit (me more than Matt, he's always such a rock for me) about the announcement that Ethiopia may be cutting back their adoptions by 90% starting March 10. While right now this is all speculation, conjecture and rumor (according to my agency and a few other adoption outlets I've checked); I can't even begin to fathom the ramifications this holds. For us, other adoptive families and even more so the children that need homes.

And while organizations like UNICEF (whom I will never support again! ever!!) would like you to believe that it is better for children to stay in their home country, be sponsored by someone far away and grow up in an orphanage that just can't be the truth. Children need families; they need a mothers love, a fathers guidance and a grandparents over indulgence.

I agree that adoption and corruption do not mix. I just don't think that the solution is stopping children from going to their forever home is the solution.

But when Paul wrote Philippians he didn't say "rejoice in the Lord when you feel like it" or "rejoice in the Lord when things are good." Instead, Paul said "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice."

So even though the road ahead is unsure, our path even more unknown than it was a week ago we will still rejoice. We will rejoice in the fact that our God is sovereign, all-knowing and just. While we may not know when our little boy is coming home (yes, I'm convinced our baby will be a boy) God knows. Though I long to look into the deep brown eyes of the one I already love, I know God knows the number of eyelashes surrounding those little eyes.

With that, we will heed Philippians 4:4 and "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again, rejoice."

I just might need a reminder now and then to maintain my perspective.