What a difference a year (or 5) makes

This morning I was chatting with a facebook friend and I got to thinking about how the Lord has provided over the years. This is the time of year for nostalgia, right? So, buckle your seatbelts, we are going for a ride back in time...

Five years ago we were praising the Lord for choosing us to be part of a domestic adoption program. We had been trying for a biological baby for over two years and decided to pursue adoption. We were randomly (we don't really believe that, but that is what the agency claims) selected from over 90 couples to participate in a domestic adoption program in hopes of receiving a baby in 18-24 months from the time we finished all the paperwork and our homestudy.

The very next year, 2005, we were actually expecting Katrina, our first biological daughter. Can you even believe it? As I write this I am still in awe about the difference one short year made. Shortly after we finished all the adoption paperwork and the homestudy, we were "in the book" (the place where biological parents look for potential adoptive parents) and we found out we were pregnant. It was shocking and overwhelmingly exciting.

In 2006 we celebrated this time of year with Katrina, who was 10 months old. It was a joyful season, giving thanks to the Lord for His provision of the wonderful blessing of a child into our lives.

One short year later we were grieving the loss of two babies to miscarriage and unbeknownst to us, we were going to grieve the same loss one more time (February of 2008 we lost our third baby to miscarriage). This was a very trying time for us as we continued to seek the Lord, wondering why He was choosing this path for us to walk down.

Last year, in 2008, we were hopefully expecting our second biological child, Samuel. It was another joyful time, although we were a bit apprehensive about how the duration of the pregnancy would go and if the baby would survive.

This year we are a happy family of four! God has graciously placed the second arrow in our quiver and we are so thrilled.

It is amazing to look back and see what God has done over the years. In the midst of the pain, like the pain we experienced with infertility and then with the miscarriages, it seems like it will never end, that there will never be any joy. Yet, looking back, that has not been the case. How about for you?

"O taste and see that the Lord IS good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him."

Psalm 34:8