New Favorite Quote...sums up what I've learned over the past 4+years!

"Faith is not simply a patience that passively suffers until the storm is past. Rather, it is a spirit that bears things-with resignations, yes, but above all, with blazing, serene hope." -Corazon Aquino

so I fell upon this quote while rereading one of my latest fav books..and I sat there and read and reread it, and was overcome w/how much this quote sums up my feelings and experience the past 4+yrs and what I've come to learn a/b faith and hope.
I feel like I used those two words so loosely prior to our journey to Sophie....I mean, I knew on some level what it was to have "faith" and to "hope" for something...but until I had to endure a very long, hard, painful wait for my daughter, did I really come to appreciate what faith really is, and what having hope can deliver to you.
And as this book I'm reading goes on to say: " Hope" "is willing to leave unanswered questions unanswered, and unknown futures unknown. Hope makes you see God's guiding hand not only in gentle and pleasent moments, but also in the shadows of disappointment and darkeness."

My reward in this adoption journey was not only my precious baby girl, that's a given, but my reward on a deeper level is my relationship w/God, what He taught me through those years, what He showed me I am capable of, what He brought to me while I suffered, and what He gave me after I came through it....

I've learned that although we will all question hard times we go through in this life, we can never question whether or not God knows our hard times or sufferings, but rather on some level, find a way to thank Him for it, because once through it, whatever it may be, the rainbow you'll have in your heart, is immeasurable!!!!

And the pic above I should not even be posting, b/c I look horribly sleep deprived ..but whatever....I wanted to show it b/c my sweet girl is back in her carrier, the same one I first carried her in in Ch*na! She was so fussy the other day, at dinner time of all times, so I had had it..and I thought I'd try it out..and she LOVED it! I sware she recognized it from back then and snuggled rt up to my chest while I made dinner, happy as can be!