{"id":18,"date":"2004-11-29T12:52:00","date_gmt":"2004-11-29T19:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/x.jimanddoni.com\/?p=18"},"modified":"2004-11-29T12:52:00","modified_gmt":"2004-11-29T19:52:00","slug":"experiencing-the-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/?p=18","title":{"rendered":"Experiencing the Miracle"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span face=\"Times New Roman\">Sitting here with tears streaming this morning after watching Steven Curtis Chapman???s ???Experience the Miracle???.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; See <a href=\"http:\/\/www.shaohannahshope.org\/\">here.<\/a>&nbsp; <\/span>In the background, ???When Love Takes You In??? is softly playing and I have been looking at the sweetest little children who have found their forever families.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; &nbsp;<\/span>At one part during this clip, SCC said ???The moments I get the most overwhelmed with adoption is when I think that I could have missed it!???<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span face=\"Times New Roman\">I know EXACTLY what he means!<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>During this Thanksgiving week we have had so much to be thankful for.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>It was barely one year ago (Dec 9<sup>th<\/sup>) when I told the Lord that I was feeling desperate for another baby and asked Him if we could please hear news of a baby before Christmas.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>He answered 2 hours later.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>Little did we know we would have Ty by January.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span face=\"Times New Roman\">Ty is content as could be sitting in his bouncer and Tanner is playing with him and watching Jo Jo???s Circus.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>The Christmas decorations are all put up (I wanted the boys to get to enjoy them all month) and I have this feeling of blessed contentedness as I sit here typing and watching them.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>Have I mentioned lately that they are my treasures?<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>The thought that I could have missed them???overwhelming is an understatement.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>How often in our lives do we set our mind on our goals and plans and we get so stubborn in our own assurance over how the plan plays out?<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>This was not the plan.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>We were going to have a houseful of children by now and we weren???t going to have any problems getting pregnant and we most especially were not going to have multiple miscarriages???that was definitely not going to happen.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>The plan ???seemed??? to go awry.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>If I would have been able to see with ???future eyes??? though, I would have seen that my plan was very second rate compared to what God wanted.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><span face=\"Times New Roman\">I believe adoption brought joy and peace to us in a way that nothing else could have.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>The things we have learned about life and love and each other???immeasurable beauty.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>Infertility and the loss of babies was painful to say the least, but look at the gifts we have now!<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>I never could have imagined that I would say infertility was one of the greatest gifts of my life and at the top of my ???I am thankful for??? list???yet it is.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>Over and over I have thanked God for His plan.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>Adoption is a miracle.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>A miracle for the children?<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>Maybe???but that is not what I am talking about.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>I am talking about the miracle for Jim and I and for our family as a whole.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>When I listened to ???When Love Takes You In???, I couldn???t help but think love took ME in.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>I feel that adoption has done more for me than my children.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>It has taught me new heights and depths of love, it has taught me about what really matters, it has helped me understand spiritual adoption???why God???s plan of salvation includes adoption ??? He has adopted me as his own.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">\n<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: \">When I looked at a picture of SCC???s 3 genetic children, holding his 3 daughters from China, I couldn???t stop the tears.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>They understand the miracle.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>I am already anxious to adopt more babies.<span style=\"mso-spacerun: yes\">&nbsp; <\/span>I want more time with Ty first but unless God tells us different, Jim and I do not see Ty as a lastborn<\/span><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: \"><span style=\"mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings\">J<\/span><\/span><span style=\"FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: \">.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sitting here with tears streaming this morning after watching Steven Curtis Chapman???s ???Experience the Miracle???.&nbsp; See here.&nbsp; In the background, ???When Love Takes You In??? is softly playing and I have been looking at the sweetest little children who have found their forever families.&nbsp; &nbsp;At one part during this clip, SCC said ???The moments I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mamas-diaries"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimanddoni.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}