Spiritual Food

So this hasn't been an easy week by any stretch of the imagination.  In fact, while we celebrated the joy of Christmas, we have also grieved quite a bit.  Thank goodness though, our God is gracious and His mercies are new every morning.  Over the past week, God has given us quite a bit of spiritual food that has helped sustain us through this difficult time.  Much of this nourishment for our hearts and spirits has come from you all!  You have shared words of encouragement, scripture, songs, quotes, and prayers.  For that, we are eternally grateful.  One form of spiritual food was a seed planted in both Brian and I...an older hymn that neither of us had really heard or thought of in a while.  But, over the last week, we have sung it together, hummed it, and meditated on it often.  I'm so thankful that this song of comfort has popped into our hearts and minds.

Great is Thy Faithfulness

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;

There is no shadow of turning with Thee;

Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not;

As Thou hast been, Thou forever will be.

Refrain

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Great is Thy faithfulness!

Morning by morning new mercies I see.

All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;

Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,

Sun, moon and stars in their courses above

Join with all nature in manifold witness

To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.

Refrain

Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth

Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,

Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

Refrain

We will continue to feast on every bit of spiritual food that we are given.  Still trusting and praising our Strength for Today and our Bright Hope for Tomorrow!

A Roller Coaster

Yesterday we got the news that we DIDN'T want to hear.  We found out from our case manager that the embassy has decided to require extra paperwork/documentation; so we will not be traveling for the December 28th embassy date as we originally thought.  To make the situation even more complicated, the orphanage where our daughter was housed is now tasked with collecting documentation and reconnecting with people who were initially involved in her case (from about 10 months ago)!  Since this is a completely new requirement we have no idea how long it will take to gather this information and be reassigned an embassy date.  It might not even be the next available date, which is January 11th.  Honestly, we are shocked and crushed, but we have hope.  We are praying for God to move mountains and carve a quick path to our sweet girl.   Yesterday was a hard day and extremely emotional, but a friend April, posted a passage from Lamentations on her blog as part of her 12 Days of Christmas series that gave my soul desperately needed peace.  It is Lamentations 3:19-30 (from the Message)

19-21  I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness,

the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed.

I remember it all—oh, how well I remember—

the feeling of hitting the bottom.

But there's one other thing I remember,

and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

22-24God's loyal love couldn't have run out,

his merciful love couldn't have dried up.

They're created new every morning.

How great your faithfulness!

I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over).

He's all I've got left.

25-27  God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits,

to the woman who diligently seeks.

It's a good thing to quietly hope,

quietly hope for help from God.

It's a good thing when you're young

to stick it out through the hard times.

28-30 When life is heavy and hard to take,

go off by yourself. Enter the silence.

Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions:

Wait for hope to appear.

Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face.

The "worst" is never the worst.

We need your prayers and support right now.  Please know that as soon as we have updated information, we will shout from the rooftops and share with everyone!