Thankful in all things

Well, my last post, which I actually posted today (29th), showed up with a date of Nov. 6th- so I have some figuring out to do. I think I had started a draft on the 6th, but didn't change the date to today. So, as of the 6th, we had not yet sent in applications, that was done within the last 2 weeks.

We had an awesome time in Madison with Jon's family over Thanksgiving, lots of cousins to play with, visiting to do and food to eat. The time went by very quickly, but we enjoyed and loved every minute, especially thankful that we were healthy. 2 years ago in Madison, 3 of us were very, very sick and spent most of our time in the hotel room. Much improved this year for sure!

Lately God has been putting on my heart and in my mind to be thankful in all things. About a month ago, mom, Kara and I attended a women's conference in Brookfield and Lysa Terkeurst was the guest speaker. She is a mentor to me, and author of 2 of my favorite books. She based her talk on 1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18 'Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus'. This has stuck with me and reminds me that even though it may be difficult at times to praise God for our circumstances, we can and should still praise God for who He is. This doesn't mean that if you are facing health problems, divorce, financial struggles, or any other unpleasant situation, that we have to thank God for that problem, but we can still thank God for all other blessings in our lives and how he might use that problem to strenghthen our faith, encourage someone else or even bring someone else to a relationship with Jesus. Right now, our circumstances find us feeling alone, uncomfortable, and a little scared. We have no idea what God has planned for us with the adoption, but, we will continue to be joyful, pray and give Him thanks. We will continue to ask Jesus to be our portion, to be enough, for each day.