A Lifetime Journey Since this Summer

Well, since my last post in July, so much has happened. It seems like ages ago! In fact, my crazy blogger account password had apparently expired when I tried to log on today and I had to reset the entire thing to access my blog. Oh good Lord!! So, at last, here I am...and now it's snowing outside after days and days of lovely sunny yet chilly weather. It's late Saturday evening, December 28, 2013 (and John is entertained with a movie downstairs). I'm finally sitting down to try and catch up on my blog. Where to begin and what to say to you? Hmmm. So much in our life seems to be upside down and quite unsettled and it feels like all we have been doing since July is trying to put it all back together like a jigsaw puzzle scrambled into many pieces on a table. As some of you may know, after a very long certification process involving multiple years of preparation and much deliberation, we were blessed with a foster/adopt placement in our home in August. However, due to some unforeseen circumstances, everything came to an unexpected end two months later. We were truly heartbroken and remain devastated. Following that experience and after serious discussion, we closed that chapter of our life and the possibility to ever be parents. Since that time, work and life in general has been strangely demanding for us both and things has seemed to be a blur. We are actually only now beginning to reflect on the loss of what we had hoped would have been a forever family with our foster/adopt placement daughter. The Christmas holidays have been quiet for us which for good or bad has given us the chance to talk about what is on our minds and hearts from all that has happened since this summer specifically. We are grasping the reality of a lifestyle ahead that is quite different than anticipated but we are trying to find God's reason in it (which may take a while). We have good days and heart-sinking days when we embrace all that this year has provided and taken away but we "walk on". We look forward to a new year ahead with hopes for happier days and disappointment that is gradually softened. I love Victoria Osteen's FaceBook posting today which really spoke to us both, "Today let me reassure you that God knows right where you are, and He knows how to get you to where you need to be. Even when things don't go the way you planned, His hand is on you."