Our Secret Special Surprise

So ... I left you hanging with this picture a few posts ago ...



Well as I'm sure that you were able to tell ... it was a puzzle. lol But .... this is a special puzzle. I got the idea back at the beginning of this journey from another adoption blog that I found. And I LOOOOOOVED IT! I thought that it was such a cool idea and a very very special thing to have.

We picked a puzzle that we liked and put it together ...


Can you tell what it is yet????


How about now???


Last piece!!!!


Finally DONE!

Now here comes the super special part ....

On the back we wrote the names of all the people that have financially & prayerfully supported our adoption journey. It's so neat to be able to look back and see the amazing people that God brought to walk through this journey with us. We feel so blessed and honored to be able to share this amazing journey with all of these friends and family.



Then we scored a $10 frame at Hobby Lobby and bought some glass at ACE so that we can hang our puzzle in Amiah's nursery.




(Please read this post about God painting a picture to understand what I am about to say)

I thought that this puzzle was PERFECT when I found it a few weeks ago. Each puzzle piece is a tiny tiny little picture .... and as each small individual picture connects to another it creates one new beautiful picture. See if you stand too close to the puzzle you can't see how beautiful it was meant to be. Sure ... some of the tiny individual pieces are pretty ... and some of the pieces have dark shadows, but once you take a step back and see how all of the pieces of the puzzle fit together it becomes what the artist envisioned it to be... a beautiful butterfly. If even one little piece was missing ... it would ruin the whole painting. Each small piece was meant to be there.

We have been through some of the toughest times in my life during this crazy little adoption adventure of ours. And in the midst of the craziness sometimes I wanted to quit. Sometimes I just wanted to give up because things just got too hard. But now as I take a huge step back I am able to see how God is using the good times ANNNNND the dark sad times to make up one of the most beautiful pictures I have ever seen. I can look back now and see how He was whispering in my ear all along the way ... "just hang on ... just trust ME ... I'm creating something far better than anything you can even imagine."

It's a beautiful picture .... a beautiful life ... and I'm so thankful that He chose this life for me.