This Week..

This week...

I guided my, just turned seven year old, daughter as she sewed her first ever pillow.  She was beaming with pride...full of JOY..and let out "THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVER".

I drove my cooing baby girl to the University to see another doctor.  I listened to her giggling as I drove because she loves moving her face in the sun as it streams in the Toyota's window.

I held my tiny four year old girl close as her hip was x-rayed because she injured it somehow, and I cuddled her little frame while she was examined and calling "Momma" with complete confidence that I would never leave her.

I answered the phone to hear the dear nurse at my eight year old daughter's school calling to tell me my sweet girl had a fever and was requesting her momma.

And it struck me.  It struck me that had I made one turn to the left..just one step away from this path I am on..that I could have missed this JOY completely.  If I hadn't been in the word regularly..if I hadn't been listening for God to speak..if I hadn't trusted him..if I had let fear get the best of me nearly seven years ago when all of this started, my life would be so different. 

Far less JOYFUL.  

Far less miraculous.  

Far less full.  

Which led to think.... 

I may not have missed this path, but what else have I let fear rob me of?  There are things that God calls us to do that scare us to death...aren't there?  New Jobs, new relationships, risks for His sake, adoption, foster care.. I was scared to death to enter this world of special needs parenting.  I never thought of adopting, and I certainly never dreamed of parenting five children.  The thought makes me laugh out loud.  There were days on this path that I was trembling in my boots.  Moments like the ones that I first saw my children, that I doubted whether I could do this, and the truth is..I can't, but had I let fear keep me from saying yes to this life..Oh what I would have missed out on.  If you have something that God has put on your heart, take the risk..follow..obey.  Don't let fear rob you of the great blessings that comes by living in God's will even if seems like a hard path to follow. 

I pray that I don't let fear control me..that I keep my eye's on the one who is writing my story, and obediently follow Him to all the places that He calls because I never want to miss the JOY that is always waiting there!