We're finally reaching the tail-end of this whirlwind journey to bring you home. It's unbelievable that six weeks have already come and gone! So many mountains were moved and are still moving.... It feels like only yesterday and light years into the future all at once!! We came into this knowing we'd be required to teach you and disciple you, but it has really been us that God has been teaching and discipling through you. We've been doing a lot of growing up of our own these past two years, but especially these past two months!!! <3
God doesn't joke around. The constant testing of our faith throughout this process undoubtedly produced the exact amount of perseverance necessary to carry us through the disaster of this final week (see James 1:1-4). Had we been faced with this trial even months ago, our deeply-rooted weed of unbelief would have been our undoing. I praise Him for His perfect timing and flawlessly executed plans! The mistake has been resolved--you will be approved for a visa despite our late submission of essential paperwork!!! And all for His glory still :)
Adoption, indeed, reveals a whole new facet of God's Love and Grace that you think you understand until you really understand it. Through learning how He wants us to love you, God has tangibly shown us that He doesn't require we be anything more or less than we are right now-"good" or "bad". The Love and Mercy He gives is so unlike man's...it is truly without conditions...not based at all on how well we treat Him or perform as His children. And like it must be in His eyes when we are adopted into His Kingdom, you feel no less my daughter than had you been born from my own womb.
You have been brought into our world with your own experiences, culture, and standards that we had no influence over. You're completely self-sufficient and capable of living on your own had you been forced to. Yet, there are still these remnants of your childlike nature we find wanting. You are independent, but so dependent. Only now do we grasp exactly what our task is: not to raise you, but to shape you. To show you as much of Him as His Spirit equips us to reveal.
And I know now, without any doubt, that He will equip us.
