Hidden Person of the Heart

Throughout this week, I have been reading I Peter in my quiet times with the Lord and God has really been speaking to me about 'the hidden person of the heart' that Peter writes about.  When he is talking about wives, he says our adornment should be 'the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit', so I was reflecting on how God has been growing this imperishable quality in me as a wife and mother and it led me to sit in thankfulness for the good, hard work God has done in my heart.  I Peter 1:3-4 says, 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy, has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you...'  I have read these verses before.  I have 'His great mercy' and 'living hope' and 'will not fade away' underlined in my Bible.  I have a cross over 'Lord Jesus Christ' and a triangle around 'His' from my days of marking each key word in each book of the Bible.  But this week, the awesomeness of these truths entered deeper into 'the hidden person of the heart.'  And I am grateful.  According to God's great mercy, I have been born again into a living hope and have an inheritance with my precious Savior Jesus Christ that will never fade away!  Amazing grace!  Wow!  Too often my heart glazes over these truths, so I am thankful for the moments I hear God speak to these deeper places of my heart. 

As we move forward in our adoption journey, God is graciously reminding me about my adoption into His family.  As we fill out paperwork and have physicals and meetings and wait in line at the license bureau and take online courses and drive 60 miles to our adoption agency for meetings and try to find people to help with Isaac and Emma while we have extra meetings and drive back to the doctor's office again for something extra we need to have done and continue to give Isaac and Emma the time and attention they need and pray for the finances to come in and etc., I am reminded about how much more God did to be with me.  He didn't just travel from the United States to China, Jesus Christ left the glories of heaven to hang on a cross for me, so that I could be rescued from sin and born again into a living hope that will never fade away.  Because I have been adopted into His family, I wait in hopeful expectation of the day we will hold our child in our arms, adopted into our family.  And I am grateful. 

Also, to give everyone a little update on where we are in the home study process, a couple of days ago I received a call from our caseworker saying things are going faster than expected!  Things going 'faster than expected' is not common in the world of international adoption, so we are encouraged by this!  Any step that goes faster, means that the next step can begin sooner.  Our home study is scheduled to finish in mid-April, so we are hoping we will wrap up this stage a little earlier than that and then we will begin the process of getting our materials (our dossier) to China.  Thanks for journeying with us!  Your prayers and support are true gifts to us!