Rays of sunshine and words of hope

I am so blessed by all the families I have met through this adoption. When we started this process 27 months ago, it only occured to me that my life would be richer by this child that I was going to have the honor of parenting. I had absolutely no idea what lied ahead with the many network of families that would be my strong hold and encouragement. I mean, here you are talking to people you have NEVER even met before and you care for them like you have been friends forever. I have been honored with friendships in every stage of the process. Those who have completed their adoptions and share their precious treasures with me by pictures, email, or videos or blog posts. There are those who are farther away from the referral process that look to me for encouragement, (wow, what an honor, because I think they have awesome patience and trust), there are those families who are exactly in the same position we are looking for a referral anyday who understands my thoughts and can complete my sentences of concerns before I can, there are those who have received their referrals and are patiently waiting to travel and share with us their anticipation of excitement in being able to travel to receive these wonderful gifts of God.
I have a wonderful social worker who has never made us feel like we had to be anything but ourselves and has taken a genuine interest in our life and the life of our daughter. I consider her my friend. We have a great consultant from our branch office that takes the time to answer all my concerns and always has wonderful words of encouragement for me amidst my tears. We have a great agency that is doing all they can to keep us apprised of all that is going on in Vietnam and what we need to do and encourage us far beyond what is expected of them.
It really truly amazes me that this time last year I was thinking I was the only one going through the wait for this child and then I get inspired to start a journal on Journey to Me, and my life has since been enriched with a network of people who know exactly what I am feeling and thinking and that is SO refreshing when even my family and close friends can never really know what we are going through. If I had never taken that step to start my journal, my life would not be rich today with the blessings of my adoption friends.I thank God everyday for the wonderful friendships He has brought to me. I am meeting new friends every day and God is continuing to bless me with these wonderful people.

This quote was given to me and I wanted to share it with all of you:
"In whatever (God) does in the course of our lives, He gives us, through the experience, some power to help others."
So, everyday God can do something that changes our lives and through that experience, no matter how small or large, He has given us some power to help others. Whatever we are going through, it is for His purpose alone, that somewhere someone needs to lean on us for some advice, help or hope and because we have gone through that valley, we can encourage them. God has given me peace on this journey. I know we are going to get Kaylee, it is just not going to be as soon as we thought. But I am willing to wait the amount of days, hours, minutes, and seconds til the time is right for us to meet this amazing little life that I will call my daughter.
Thank you for all your words of encouragement in our time of waiting and I know that one day soon we will be celebrating the new life that God will reveal to us and I will be honored to share her with all of you.