Ups and Downs

In my zest for Adoption Awareness Month I hear that the CCAA mailed referrals for two days of LIDs this month. Just two days. That is a very small amount. The CCAA remains steadfast that domestic adoption is on the rise and that abandonments are down. I am grateful for that, but is that really true? Pictures I see of inside orphanages show quite a few children. Why are these children still in orphanages if there are families lined up from 2006-2008 to welcome them? Obviously, I do not have all the facts, I do not work for the CCAA, nor do I work in an orphanage, nor do I live in China. I just know what I see and hear from friends who have been over there. So, we wait . . .
It's a cold, rainy Monday here in Tulsa. I love days like this, where I am nice and cozy warm, the smell of clean laundry wafting through the house. What's it like where Avery is?
I love Oklahoma. I get all the seasons in full force with all their beautiful and ugly colors. I get mountains, I get plains, plateaus, rivers, lakes, big city life, and small town glory. The people here are usually pretty friendly and most of us have a heart for Jesus. Amazing Grace How Sweet the Sound . . .
The bottom picture is of the Wudang Mountains in China. There are so many very unique sites in China. Of course, there's the Great Wall, there's the Dragon Back Mountains, rice paddies, lakes, palaces, remote farm communities, very different ways of dressing, worshipping, relating, being, and living. The middle picture is a rice farm terraced on the mountains, and the top is Kunming, Jade Snow Dragon Mountain.

Psalm 31:7 (New International Version)

I will be glad and rejoice in your love,
for you saw my affliction
and knew the anguish of my soul.