Hope...

A friend called me yesterday and congratulated on our one-year anniversary...that is, it has been one year since we formally began this process (although the prayer and research started before we ever applied). Still, it surprised me that it had been a year. And it made me think...

A year ago, we started this journey. We nick-named our daughter Domita (i.e., Princess) Hope so that we would have a name to pray and a person to discuss. We continue to hope for a daughter. We hope that she will be 6-7 years old. We hope that she will come into our home sometime this year. We hope that we will be able to parent her wisely.

We use the word hope a lot!

But we know that really...

"Now faith is the assurance that what we hope for will come about and the certainty that what we cannot see exists." Hebrews 11:1

I have recently been reminded of hope in a very different context. A very special friend of ours died under very difficult circumstances. Yet his funeral was full of hope. We hope to see him again in heaven. And this hope is not a wish or even a prayer request, it is a hope that we have already been assured that we will see fulfilled! We have certainty in this hope.

So, back to our little princess, we believe that God has placed her on our hearts and has a plan for her in our family. We don't know exactly how this will all come out. We know that there will be challenges ahead although we don't know the form that they will take. We don't know when we will finally get to meet this daughter that we have prayed for. We don't know how this will impact our family as a whole and each individual member. There is a lot we don't know. But we know this...

Through Christ, we have HOPE.