From Mourning to Dancing...


Tonight I had one of those "tear up because you are overflowing with gratitude" moments, right at the start of the Varsity Volleyball game.  We had just finished the JV game and I was doing was has become routine this season.  I was hanging out with my little man, snatching what few seconds I could get with him before the Varsity game.  Nate was talking with a family who had been following our story for quite some time, while Biruk was crawling at lightening speed across the gym floor as our girls got ready to warm up.  Then the music started.  I looked over and there was Biruk, in one of his newly made volleyball onesies, sitting on the gym floor with this huge smile on his face, "dancing" to the beat of the music.  This mama was overwhelmed with God's goodness.

The past several years of our journey, there have been a lot of difficult moments, and for some reason, many of them came during volleyball season.  Whether it was seeing what seemed to be every coach in Washington County pregnant, or getting the news that our adoption process wait time had been extended AGAIN, there were a lot of days where I wasn't sure I would ever see the light at the end of the tunnel. There were several times during volleyball season that I came in crying because the disappointment was overwhelming.

Disappointing days are inevitable.  Difficult moments are expected.  There will be times when we feel overwhelmed by the situations and circumstances we can't change, or the unexpected bumps along the road. We can't get rid of them.  We can't avoid them.  We can only embrace them.  In the end, they are often what lead us to some pretty amazing moments where our response can be nothing more than tears of overwhelming gratitude.

Psalm 30:11-12 says, "You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.  You have taken my away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.  Oh Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever."  Biruk isn't the only one dancing tonight...thanks be to God.

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