Aaliyah Home 1 Year and 9 Months

Never could you have told me what would unfold in the last one and three quarters of a year.  Some of the greatest blessings and victories, and some of the hardest things we have ever faced as a family.  Our testimony stands to say that God is who He says He is, He is true to His Word, and His promises are true and very real.  

Aaliyah is a delight!  She is so joyful and sweet.  She has come from a very hard place with many hurdles to overcome.  Older child adoption for us has been different from infant adoption.  All three of our adoptions 'felt' different, and I guess the circumstance in each one was different.  I would say the infant adoption was a quicker attachment process for us and the older child adoption was a slower attachment.  Looking back at this point I can surely say that the Lord has knit us all together and it is really fun to look back and see the progress made.  One of the promises of faith we have seen played out is that no matter how you feel, if you choose love, God will grow that love.  

        I know the blog is sometimes the place to divulge all sorts of detail, but in this circumstance the details were a train wreck for me, but they are not my story to tell right now.  Something happened in our family that I thought was one of my worst nightmares.  The crazy thing is that God used it to show me that there is no such thing as a worst nightmare because He was holding all of us in the palm of His hand.  We never fell, no one was permanently injured, and evil meant to bring harm and tear a family apart, but the Lord used it to knit us together, and bring healing in ALL of our lives, not just Aaliyah's!  Now I call that a victory, not a nightmare.

          There has been a lot of sacrifice, work, love, and forgiveness poured out all over this beautiful mess by every one involved near and far.  I have done the ugly, full on sobbing snotty cry more than once, but we have also laughed until we cried over hysterical things this little girl from Louisiana brought to Idaho. But I stand here today to tell you I have a daughter!  A beautiful, lovely, dark, tall, shining daughter that WE all love and adore.  God is so good!  It is so much fun to have a daughter.  Something I knew nothing about until 1 year and 9 months ago:)  It is different than I imagined, especially since she was almost as tall as me and she was FIVE.  But I have cuddled, tickled and rocked her like she was and is my little baby.  I promise it is a hysterical sight to behold, but it is needed and wanted.  Oh my:)  I do believe the Lord has a sense of humor!

So I'm going to leave it at that for now.