I've realized recently that whenever I try to rely on my own strength, I often times spend my days in fear and anxiety. When I rely on the Lord's strength I have amazing, supernatural peace. I know that fear is not of the Lord so I am discovering the truth of Philippians 4:6-7:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
There have been some incredible moments of encouragement over the past couple of weeks. We see God's hand moving in situations like last week when we sat down next to an older couple whom we had never met before. They saw the girls with us and told us that they had adopted twins many years before but that it was a crazy story. Well, it turns out their story was an incredible story of God working in a seemingly impossible situation. There were many parallels to our situation and I left that interaction feeling like God, in His providence, had orchestrated our meeting.
Just today our caseworker came over for her monthly visit. I usually dread any interaction with any of the people involved in our case because I always fear bad news. Over the past couple of days I had Isaiah 52:7 running through my mind:
How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news.
I prayed that that verse would be true of our caseworker when she came this morning. As it turns out, we were very encouraged by her visit because it sounds like the paternal grandmother may be having a change of heart about wanting to take the girls! That has been our specific prayer since the beginning and we see God moving very clearly. We still have a long way to go with this whole process but I am so thankful that even though I was dreading the month of December, God has given us great encouragement during a season that should always be filled with much joy and celebration as we anticipate the birth of our Savior and King!
