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"Trust the past to God's mercy, the present to God's love, and the future to God's providence."--Augustine

Josie and I stepped off a plane in the USA over two weeks ago.  We've spent that time reconnecting with Darren and other friends and family here as well as just trying to remember what "normal life" was ever like.

I have to say that the Lord has been so good to us during this adjustment.  He provided a mini-vacation for us in Key West the first week, Darren's parents came the next week and as always provided much needed encouragement and babysitting:), Josie and I both had NO jetlag to speak of, and the basic adjustment to American life has been fairly smooth.

It's still a daily process of trying to sort my emotions about everything, but God continues to flood our lives with peace even as we pray for the new family that is in Zambia right now trying to adopt the girls.  You can follow their journey at www.sherleysinzambia.wordpress.com It will be exciting to see how the Lord moves in this family and the lives of the precious girls I once called my daughters.

Josie is thrilled to be back--to have her daddy around again and see her friends and be in her own home.  There's just something about "home" that never gets replaced.  I can't even explain how happy it made me to open the door and be home again.  I sincerely hope that I never ever have to do anything like that again!

My church family has just showered us with so much love and support.  I feel so honored to be a part of such a marvelous group of brothers and sisters. 

Even now we are starting to see glimpses of God's purpose in this.  We may never know this side of heaven the full picture of his plan for these two girls, but I know that for whatever reason I was meant to be there with them for the 71/2 months I was.  It changed me and most likely forever changed them and Josie as well in many ways.  I don't have any regrets about it even though it is so very hard to understand sometimes.

 I hope that the struggles we've had will not necessarily scare anyone away from adoption.  I do believe that ours was a uniquely difficult case and if anyone would like to speak with us about adoption in general or how to avoid some of the risks we encountered I would still be happy to advocate for orphans and pass on any knowledge I can share.

So this is likely the last post for this blog. I'm gratelful for everyone who followed along and walked this rocky road with us. Thank you for your prayers, your love, and your words of encouragement that always came at just the right time.   I don't know where our family goes from here and right now we aren't making too many plans, but just enjoying each other.  I do know that whatever comes our way in the future, we will pray for the faith to always see God's faithfulness and trust His love for us.

"Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved."  Psalm 55:22