Risks and Blessings

I will never forget the conversation that finally launched our family into this adoption adventure. I was with my dh after my darling kiddo had gone to bed. My dh was recalling when our kiddo was little and saying..Don't you remember how hard it was? Don't you remember that you cried everyday for three years because you had to leave her to go to work? (I am a true psycho mom.) Don't you remember the strain it put on our marriage..on our sanity..Don't you remember? (Let me tell you I do remember-It was rough.) He meant..Things are great now. We are in the home stretch-almost to the finish line. Don't you remember? Why do you want to go back? I said with tears running down my face..But wasn't it worth it? Think about the joy she has brought us and what that darling kiddo means to us. The way you feel just to see her smile after you have had a long day. The feeling you get to see her succeed and the indescribable joy you have as you watch her grow in her faith and give her life to the Lord. Wasn't it worth it? Aren't the numerous blessings so worth every risk we have taken and all that was hard?

So my motto for this journey has become if you don't take the risk-you won't receive the blessings! I could live my life safely never risking anything hard. We could have kept saying no to adoption but we would miss out on so many blessings that God intends for us along the way. Adding this Asian face to our family is going to be hard sometimes. We are going to have times when we feel broken, helpless, hurt, exhausted, stretched, weak..but oh it will be soo worth it.

It will be worth it because Paul writes in God's word...
But he (Jesus) said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast the more gladly about my weaknesses so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for Christ's sake I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, For when I am weak, then I am strong.(2Cor 12:9-10) These hardships and weaknesses that come our way are merely a chance for Christ's power to be even more apparent through us! What an immeasurable blessing experiencing His power is..

What risk has God been asking you to take that you have just been too afraid to move on? Remember if you don't take the risk..you don't receive the blessing. If you don't become weak, He can't be strong in you.