You Make All Things Work Together for My Good

Amidst the familiarity of everything around me, I have gone to searching within myself to figure out what is different about this journey versus last. I sometimes glance back at old blog posts, and it at times feels like a different person wrote the words that I read. I guess that’s a good thing. It means I have matured, or grown over the past 5 years. I haven’t written much this time around because it feels like I have said it all before. But lately there is one thing that I know I feel differently about. And that is my boys’ mother. I remember after meeting Elijah and seeing the damage done by living in an orphanage, my first instinct was to blame his mother. And in some ways, rightfully so. But this time with Alexander, if feels different. I don’t know why mom keeps having children, though I have my suspicions. I don’t know what the road of her life has looked like that has lead her to this place. I feel genuine sadness in my heart over the journey that she has been on. I don’t claim to know what the abortion culture is like over here in Russia, but this I do know. Their mom gave birth to them, and by doing so gave them a chance. It is very clear to me that God has a plan for the lives of these boys. And if you read back through history, you will see countless times how God works seemingly bad things for good. I believe that these boys are a gift to this world, and if I were ever to meet her I would tell her “thank you” for bringing these two special boys into the world, and I would pray that the story of her boys’ lives and God’s amazing plan for them would point her to the fact that no matter how far gone you feel you might be, you are never out of the reach of God’s arms. And that He can work your bad for good if you just let him…

JP