Things treasured up, and heart pondering...

How do I wrap things up in this final blog entry?  This is the last time I'll blabber on, while all of you patient grammar experts cringe. Our Leila is home, and our hearts are full!!! The purpose of this blog has ended, and I find myself very ready to say goodbye to updates and details- and say hello to snuggles and snacks and the making of memories.  The real adventure of love has begun, as the five of us now have the privilege of living out and celebrating daily life together. 

So this blog entry won't be a grand finale, but more a grateful sigh of relief.  In fact, I've pretty much been avoiding, possibly dreading this last blog simply because I don't have much to say.  How can that be?  I usually suffer from the opposite condition.  I find myself however, wondering if this state I'm in is something like Mary experienced once Jesus was born and even later in his childhood when she is described as "treasuring things up, and pondering them in her heart" (Luke 2:19 and 2:51).  She seems to have been realizing some things surrounding her child were over her head and was humbled to just treasure them up and hope that in pondering them she would gain wisdom over time.   If that's how she felt, I can relate.  We have asked for prayer many, many times as we anticipated the arrival of our little girl.  Long before we knew who she would be, all 4 of our hearts were ready with love for her. This almost four year adventure at times delighted us, surprised us, broke our hearts and then grew and matured them all the while preparing us for the season we are now enjoying.  What a merciful God!  How many times I trembled in prayer as I said to the Lord, "Your will be done".  I was often like the man in Mark 9 who declared, "I believe, only help me overcome my unbelief".  So as we now see our sweet Leila thriving and joyful just three weeks into her new life with us, I am astounded by the goodness of the Lord.  Christ has been so faithful.  The Lord's response to our request for Him to do more than we knew how to ask or imagine would even be needed has left us in awe.  Our girl is not only accepting of the love we pour out on her, but she intentionally shows us love all the time. 

She has grown in trust so quickly and has really enjoyed getting to know the special people God has surrounded her with.  She has a very keen understanding of relationships that orphanage life didn't prepare her for, but rather we credit the Lord for being her "Counselor" as we have requested so many times.  For example, when we arrived at the orphanage on December 13th, she was not even told that we were coming or that she would be flying home in two days to meet her brothers and begin life with her family. In spite of the shock this quick and unforeseen change could have been for her, she overcame things with grace and a spirit of trust and hope.  The obvious challenges a language barrier could have brought instead have become moments for compassion and teamwork and excitement over learning from each other.  This coming together as a family of five has been far smoother than we expected and leaves me daily in a stupor of gratitude and joy.  I do not currently have the smarts to process and understand the negative could-have-beens, or even the smarts to recognize and list each positive thing that we have all experienced since bringing Leila home, but I am smart enough to know that it is no accident, and we give all the glory to God.  He has allowed some pretty average people to live extraordinary lives (if only within the walls of our own home) not because of anything great we've done, but because He takes broken people like us, restores them, and empowers them to live free and abundant lives of love.  Mind blown!!! (Or as Mary might have said, "Things treasured up and heart pondering"!)