Jasmine's started walking & Lily heard from God

Hi everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I posted. We've had a busy last few weeks with Lily finishing up preschool, an open house to introduce Jasmine, Grandma Mary coming for a visit, Jasmine's MRI being redone and my birthday. Whew - no wonder I've been tired! :-)

Since I haven't updated on the family in some time, I thought I'd give you some of the highlights of what's been going on w/the Youngs. Some of the most exciting news is that in the middle of Jasmine's open house, she started taking her first steps! It was so exciting to share that w/ our friends that came! She's continuing to try and take steps here and there and her personality has really started to come through since the beginning of this month. It's been really fun to see her start to open up and flourish! She also had her rescheduled MRI about 10 days ago and we got the results back yesterday - NO SURGERY NEEDED! Yea God! That's a huge relief for us on a variety of levels. That should be the end of the tests that are needed and we are trusting God to work out the financial provision for those costs. Thank you God!

The other really amazing thing was that Lily heard from God for the first time! It was actually the next day at church and they were teaching the kids how to listen for God and how to hear from Him. Lily heard God tell her that He loved her and that she is very pretty and that God made flowers for her. How precious is that? What makes it even more special is that the next week at school and at the playground, there were a few boys that called her some names and we were able to remind her what God thought of her to counteract that. Our God is so good! I wish I had learned to listen to God when I was her age. Other than that, she seems to be going through cycles of fearing that we are going to leave her and wondering if we love her. This has come up recently so we've been trying to put extra effort into reassuring her that we are a forever family and she is our forever child. We chose her and we love her and we are not going to leave her. I'm not sure if she was triggered by Mother's Day and started thinking about her birth mom or what but we've been dealing w/that for the last couple of weeks. That's a pretty normal thing in adoption and if you don't allow the kiddos to express their feelings and talk about their fears, it will continue to come up w/more intensity each time. We've really worked hard to not take anything personally but to identify w/her grief and her loss and let her grieve when she needs to. My heart's desire for both of my girls is for God to completely heal the holes in their hearts and bring something beautiful out of the loss they've both experienced. I want my girls to fall in love with Jesus and see how He not only saved them from their sins (which is most important) but also from their old circumstances and to embrace the new legacy that He's given them. I pray that they'll be able to see how God was in the tiniest of details in their lives just as we've seen that in ours.

Besides all of the things going on w/our girls, we're in a holding pattern waiting to see what will happen with Jim's job. Between the economy and other circumstances, it's been a tough time for his employer. Please pray for them and pray for God's continued provision for our family. Whatever happens, we are trusting Him to take care of us.

God has continued to give me MULTIPLE opportunities to work on my insecurity. I've had to step outside my comfort zone and make conscious decisions in several areas to be secure and to brush off my fears of what others think. I've had to let go of "friendships" that weren't really friendships and continue with plans regardless of the outcome. Some things I've felt some measure of success in and others I've felt failure. I've done some overcoming and succumbed to criticism in other areas but all in all I'm thankful for the opportunities to grow in this huge issue. I can't help but once again think of how God is in the tiniest of details as this will be a necessary step in order to reach the next one that God has for me. I'm eager to see where this is all leading and see how all of the details are tied together but for now, I'm waiting and working on the things God has laid before me. It's hard to not jump ahead! :-)

Well, I'm off to get up my littlest turkey so I will def. try to update more soon. In the meantime, we continue to praise and thank God for His healing, provision, love and forgiveness. As one of my fav. worship songs says, "This I know, You are a Great God. This I know, You are a Great God. This I know, You are the ONE TRUE GOD, You are a Great God."