Our girls were stolen?!?

As careful as I was last week to explain in a positive light to our five year old that "our girls" had been adopted by another family, it has come to my attention this week that our girls have been stolen!

Aliana, Christiana & Charissa

A few girlfriends have come to me this week to let me know that little Princess Charissa had informed them that someone had stolen her sisters. I have an inkling that I used the word chosen a little too frequently and in the mind of a 5 year old: chosen by someone else translated directly into stolen from her.

Picture this: Two - 5 year olds working hard to earn the last remaining super-coveted-wonderblingie out of the prize box. At last, Dot earns her trip to the prize box, only to discover that "her" wonderblingie has been "stolen!" Meanwhile, on the other side of the room sits a very happy little Darci playing with her recently "chosen" wonderblingie. As adults, we can oversee a scenario like this and completely grasp the fact that Darci earned her trip to the prize box first and thus is the rightful owner of her chosen trinket. On the other hand, we also know that little Dot just needs to look at the prizes set before her in a whole new light. Perhaps an even better prize that she has yet to discover lay before her in that prize box. However, she has to make the decision to reach in and choose it, we cannot force her.

I think sometimes that's the way it is with God watching over us. We get absolutely devastated over things because we cannot see the big picture. While God knows that if we will perservere, He has something better for us waiting on the other side of our mountain or molehill (you choose ;).

What mountain are you facing today? God has all the hiking gear you need in His Word. He loves each & every one of us dearly, but He will not force us to choose this way or that. We are not His puppets, we are His chosen children.

'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD,
'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search with all your heart.' Jeremiah 29:11-13

As for me and my house, we will press on for the prize that He has waiting for us at the end of this adoption journey. All the while keeping in mind that:

The mind of man plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps. Proverbs 16:9