Hope.

Last night, a dear friend cried with me and spoke beautiful truths. I don’t want to forget her words. They resonated so deeply and sunk into the recesses of my heart, the places where the light of hope had diminished.

She reminded me that our God is HOPE. That is His very nature. Therefore, I can continue to hold onto HOPE. I need to rebuke the lies of the enemy telling me that it is impossible for S to come home this year. Nothing is impossible for God. And, even if, even if, she isn’t home in the next month or the month after that or after that…even then, I can hold onto hope. He will give me grace and strength to make it through each and every day. I need to take one day at a time and hold onto Him in each moment of waiting.

She will come home. God led us here. God led us to our daughter and He will not forsake us now.

We are a family. Even if I’m not the one who tucks her in at night, she is my daughter. She is Dave’s baby girl. She is Ben and Nathan’s sister. We are a family. Now. We can hold onto that. We don’t have to live in a state of constantly looking ahead and wishing for a time when we are all together. We can embrace these moments now. Knowing that God is knitting our hearts together.

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And, you know what? God gave me the sweetest gifts over the past couple of days…

I learned that S had pointed to a photo of me in her album and said, “mama” and then pointed to Dave and said, “papa.” It seems like such a small thing. But, oh my heart. To learn this – that she recognized her mama and daddy – made my heart swell with joy. I’ve prayed so many times for God to prepare her little heart to become part of our family and I believe this was proof that He is at work.

And, yesterday, Ben built a tower for “S” with legos and told me she could play with it when she gets home. We took a photo to send to her…

And, then, we saw this…

They were thrilled to see her looking at the photo of Ben! {oh, yes, and Nathan cut his own hair the other day…resulting in a shaved head…details}.

Pure sweetness. Brothers and sisters connecting across the globe.

Hearts being knit together.

Please, Jesus. Move the mountains before us to bring our daughter home!!!!!