And Then There Were Five

We (finally!) got to meet the boys, almost four days ago now - though it seems like just yesterday. We had no idea what to expect, but it went really, really wonderfully. We spent several hours at their foster home, playing football and getting to know their foster mother; it was a really fantastic day. 

We went back the following day, Saturday, for a short visit and to bring them back to our apartment with us. The transition, though difficult, especially for them, has really gone very smoothly. 

We're slowly getting into a daily rhythm and learning life as a family of seven. There have been few tears and much sweetness, and we are grateful to be here, with these five little people.

Our hearts are full. God is so good.

All Settled In

We arrived at our destination late Wednesday night, after about two-and-a-half days of traveling. Our transition has been a pretty smooth one, thanks to kind drivers and apartment staff and wonderful neighbors. (Another adoptive family is staying across the hall, and they stocked our apartment with water, milk, eggs, bread, jelly, coffee, and the like before we arrived. What a thoughtful and unexpected welcome!)

We met a couple other families yesterday, did some grocery shopping, got a SIM card and airtime, and went out to dinner. Today, in a couple of hours, we'll be picked up to go meet the boys. We can't wait!

(The view from our balcony is a really beautiful one. AJ and I watched the sun come up this morning, and it was stunning. Hopefully next time I'll think to take a picture. I can't imagine that this view will ever get old.)

When it rains, it pours.

Seven days until we leave.

Seven days ago, we found out that our placing agency is closing. Has closed. That they're gone, and with them, some of the money that we've paid. $4,150, to be precise.

It was a shock and it was unsettling and it wasn't good news. But it was about money. Not children or lives or hearts, just money. No one was in the hospital and the doors to the intercountry adoption program hadn't been closed.

We're still moving forward. Independently, without an agency, but forward. With the support of family and friends and people we haven't met yet who have already become friends.

In seven days, we leave. We get on one plane, and then another, and then one more after that. We'll land in a country we've seen only in photographs and in our dreams, and the next chapter of this wonderful adventure will really begin.

And amidst all of the excitement and the nerves and the craziness leading up to our departure is this deep, steady peace. This grounding certainty that the Author of this story has everything planned out just so, and that by Him, all things - the difficult things, the frustrating things, the heartbreaking things - all things, will be worked together for our good. For our children's good.

And that $4,150? Well, He'd already taken care of that, too. Because when we looked at our budget after we'd gotten the news? There was just enough - just enough - left over between what we've budgeted for and what we have in our account. $4,164, to be precise.

Our God is in the details. Even details of the fourteen-dollar variety.

And it is all grace. This undeserved gift, that He would be in the small and the big of it, of all things.

And His grace, it has rained down on us every minute of every day. The more we stop to see it, the more we notice. That His grace, it pours out on us, lavish and wild, undeserved and unearned.

And we have only to turn our faces up as it falls, and give thanks. Always thanks, for the always-grace.