Lean not to your own understanding...

⁷But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves;
 ⁸we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
 ⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed;
 ¹⁰always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
2 Corinthians 4:7-10

This week has been full of more...wait for it...wait for it...WAITING.  Mmmm Hmmm.  That's right...more of the same!  Woo Hoo!!!
Can you sense my sarcasm???
I say that, but we do have some really incredible things to celebrate and praise the Lord for this week!!!
We have been making some headway with our paperwork for both the babies home and our Ugandan lawyer, so that is good!  We hope to send that off to them this week.
We also had a very successful garage sale on Saturday!  I think we will do one more, but we will wait a few weeks and recoop!
We heard from a friend that O is doing well.  He is still "symptomatic" of malnourishment, but we know that God is still in the healing business.  So, we are sure he will be good soon!
We got word today that most of Gracie's bloodwork came back normal, with one acception - her LDH was elevated.  After about a dozen phone calls to our doc friends, we feel pretty confident that she will be ok.  That this is yet another opportunity for growth in our faith (what isn't?) - and that at the end of this road, she will be just fine!  The opportunity - of course - will be in the "waiting" category.  We brought her for more bloodwork today (Happy birthday to me!) and were reminded of her strength.  Took 3 of us to hold that little ball of fireworks down!  Praise the Lord, this time it only took 1 stick and we got all the blood they needed.  Last time was not so successful.  We will wait on that and then probably follow up with an ortho for a MRI.  Her limp is still there, at times a little worse, and she seems to be bothered by it more.  So, we WILL get to the bottom of whatever it is.  It doesn't seem to be slowing her down too much most of the time!
The verse I noted above struck me today.  When things happen all at once...or don't happen all at once in some cases, it can be overwhelming.  I had a "moment" today.  The phones were ringing, the cars were honking, the radio was going, the texts were binging, Gracie was crying about shots, and it was just so overwhelming when paired with the thoughts in my head.  It took about 2 seconds for Josh to pull the car over and pray.  Then, my Mom prayed over the phone with me.  And once again...I was able to remember that I TRUST GOD WITH MY BABIES.  Both of them.  He loves them more than I ever could.  He knows everything about them - and I don't.  He sees the big picture and I don't.
It is OK to be concerned...what matters is that you recognize it, then turn it over to God.  And I have.  He is in control.  And it is a darned good thing...

To my sweet O,
Through out the day I catch your Daddy looking at your picture.  He just smiles and stares and I can imagine he is planning all the things you will do together.  You pop into my mind all the time.  Gracie talks about you all the time.  She even brought a dollar to Dad and told him she wanted to use it to bring home "my baby O".  We all love you and long to hold you.  Hang in there sweet boy.  You have no idea how much love you are in for.

Love you more,
Mommy

This is the pic we are sending to the babies home - I wanted it to be close up in case they showed it to O. The more I look at it, the more I think something is missing....Can't wait to include him in our family photos!