God's Plans are Good

God is so good at turning our sorrows into smiles, turning our tears into laughter, taking our pain and replacing it with love, and showing us that through both the good times and the bad, He is faithfully loving us all and holding us close to His heart. Today, God showed me that though there may be times I get a little sad over things I cannot change, He is constantly putting plans into motion that are just amazing.

Today we celebrated 4 adoptions! The 3 siblings which I blogged about last week and another precious girl whose smile brought a lot of light to Beautiful Gate and to me. Everyday when she saw me, she'd come running with arms outstretched and a beaming smile :) Today was our final farewell with the 4 children and it was so sincere and special. They all 4 came from some very tough situations that even made our social worker want to cry when she visited their village on Wednesday (and she is not easily given to tears). Their lives did not start off well, but God was not finished with them yet.

He had 3 parents who needed these children in their lives. I know one family waited for 5 long years for this adoption day. It was hard and it tested them, but God was saying wait because I have the perfect kids for you. If they would have had the kids in their timing, then they never would have had their youngest who is FULL of joy and smiles. God kept saying wait, not yet, I am your Daddy and I know just the perfect kids for you. I made them for you and I am saving them for you. It is just beautiful.

I know they are many others who are waiting to adopt children and while we may never fully understand God's timing or why the long and painful waiting, I hope you can find hope through the story of these parents. I will never understand the timing of my sister's death (previous blog post) either, but I trust God that it was the right time and I trust Him with my future and the future of my family. His ways are not our ways, but He is full of grace and mercy! Today we rejoice through adoption!