Rejoice In The Lord Always, And Again I Say Rejoice

Brace yourself.  This post is full of rejoicing and rambling!

I was having a really hard time rejoicing this week.  Our home study experience has been less than lovely.  Our social worker has been very difficult to get a hold of, not answering emails or voice mail messages.

I have really been praying about my attitude.  You know, the whole "loving your enemies", although she isn't technically my "enemy", she is standing in the way of our process that should be moving.  I've been struggling with the words to use, when to say something, when to push,when to step back, when to show grace, when to be firm...

In her own contract she specifies that she should have our home study completed within 4-6 weeks of our last visit, which for us was January 10.  It was going on 2 months and we could hardly get any kind of response from her at all.

So, this morning I sat down with the kids for breakfast and after we prayed for the day I said, "You know what guys?  We really need to pray for our home study and Miss __________."  I explained that we needed this paper so we could keep working to bring our little girl home.  I talked about how we were going to pray boldly to the Lord to move in our social worker's heart and we would pray boldly that we would have our home study by the end of the week.  I also told them that we would be grateful for however the Lord chose to answer our prayer because He knows what is best for us.

Well, the Lord must know that my anxiety-prone self couldn't handle much more because not 5 minutes after I wrote this post, pleading for others to join us in this bold prayer, I got the email with our completed home study!

I mean, I know the Lord hears, but when you see such a rewarding display of His hand you can't help but rejoice!  I went in to the kids to let them know as soon as I got the news and we praised and rejoiced the Lord together for his goodness and faithfulness to our family!

So, rejoice with us!  We're Home Study Approved!