A Peek into My Journal

This is my journal.  My sweet friend Heather gave it to me several years ago and I love the soft leather cover and the nice paper inside. It makes you want to write in it.

This is the inscription she penned for me.  I enjoy having things in people's own handwriting.  It's just so personal and I always love when I can recognize a note or recipe by someone's handwriting....I feel closer to them.  

I don't consider myself a writer by any stretch but for several years now I've kept a fairly consistent record of my day to day life including things that were going on with us, what I was learning in my Bible study, or things I wanted to pray/work through.  I want to share a little peek into my journal with you today because quiet honestly, I was blessed because of it this week and thought you might be too.

When we were getting ready to leave South Carolina and come to China our church in Aiken had us come up front to love on us a little bit and pray for us.  Stan told them then that God was using golf to get us to China but the reason we were going to China was for Him to grow our family.  That statement has been a source of comfort for me many times for various reasons and I'm not certain Stan understood the importance of his words to me or that it will have to his daughters one day when they are old enough to realize the efforts and fervor that he placed into getting us to China.

So....back to the journal.  This past Friday I woke at 3:30am to go to the bathroom and decided to check my email on my phone that was on my nightstand.  I don't often do that but that night I did and was excited and nervous both to see an email from our adoption agency and referencing our paperwork that had been recently submitted to the US authorities for approval to proceed with Maggie Mei's adoption.  Of course, my heart was racing and after a quick phone call to the agency to make sure I was indeed reading what I thought I was I was ecstatic.  Our agency had spoken with the officer reviewing our file and although there was a minor question regarding the dates on our fingerprints the bottom line was that the officer said there didn't seem to be any issues and would be approving our application.  WOOOHHOOOOOO!  

Well at that point there was no going back to sleep for me so I sat down with my journal and put my thoughts down.  I got to the end of the page and when I went to turn it I realized I was on the last page of this particular journal.   (here is that page)

I was sad that my time with this particular book would be coming to a close but also thankful for all that it held.  My curiosity was immediately peaked and I flipped to the front to see when I had started writing it it.  Here is a picture of that page. 

So......God used a journal to bless me at 4am in the morning and remind me that HIS timing is completely perfect and He did indeed bring us to China to grow our family.  I guess I'll start my next journal now and see what amazing things I get to record in that one.

Chat with ya later....