Joy: A Busy Memorial Day Weekend!

James' brother Robert and his wife Paula were in S.Korea adopting a little girl they have been waiting for a few years to get! It was so touching to hear their stories and see the pictures of their time in Korea and the long anticipated wait of seeing their little girl for the first time in person! I love adoption and love to hear adoption stories! They serve as such a great example of how we are adopted as sons and daughters of God! Just as an adopted child is paid for and longed for and waited for, so is our adoption into God's family. The price paid was a sacrificial and bloody one, which we never deserved. This is where God's grace and love are so evident and makes me fall to my knees in wonderment and thankfulness. I have been reading Choosing Gratitude by Nancy Leigh DeMoss (which is a great book so far!). I like what she said about this: "Guilt, grace, gratitude are the heart of the gospel. All three are freely given. Our gracious, giving God generously and gladly bestows grace on recipients who deserve His judgement and wrath. Those who have received such an undeserved gift of grace, respond to the Giver in generous and glad gratitude." Have you accepted His free gift of grace? If you have, do you live your life in gratitude of the gift you received in spite of the punishment that you deserve?
Since Robert and Paula were in Korea, James' parents (who live in FL) watched their children and came up to our house for a visit this past weekend on their way back home (in Maryland). It was a very brief visit but a lot of fun! It was so great to get to see them especially since we don't get to see them very often! Here are a few pictures from their visit!