Update, Thanksgiving, and Perspective

Well this has been an exciting and equally frustrating month.  We want to update quickly, before we run off to the next set of events we have going on.
On November 6th we received notification that we have Pre-approval for "Tate".  We couldn't have been more excited to get that news.  We know that means having to kick some things into gear and try to get this ball really rolling.
Unfortunately we had to terminate our relationship with our study social worker, meaning we are back at square one in this process. We know that God has a plan for all things, even this little hiccup, and we believe that we have a new agency in mind to complete the study. We are fortunate that our social worker didn't make things as difficult as she surely could have. God was looking out for us on that one for sure.  She actually made things a bit easier for us than we anticipated, which was more than we even expected her to do. For that we are grateful, even if things didn't go like we had hoped.
This isn't going to be a long blog, but I wanted to share some perspective I received recently.  Yesterday I woke up in the morning and did my usual stuff. Read my devotions, checked my email, and logged into Facebook.  I put up a greeting for Thanksgiving, but then it hit me. I had recently read things about how in China they are not able to easily access internet service or freely use social networking like Facebook.  We have our own struggles in this country, but those little things are something we truly take for granted. People whine and complain all the time about what they don't have, but they don't stop to think that what they do have is freedom. Freedom to be an individual, freedom to have an opinion and express it.  We get up and do meaningless things everyday, whereas in some places our day to day living is outlawed.
I am grateful to live in a country like ours. I am not happy with the conditions of the way we are as a nation a good portion of the time, but at least I have the right to express that I don't like it.  I wish people could wake up and look at our life for what it truly is...a blessing. One day our freedom could be a thing of the past if we aren't carefully tending to it and not just seeing it as something that is and will always be.
As I sign off, I just want to say how blessed I am for God to choose me to mother this beautiful face.  I am grateful that he will get to experience a world of freedom. I love that God has given me perspective about where he is coming from and what I am bringing him to. I am amazed at what God is always teaching me through this journey and how some things that were once taken for granted are seen as real blessings.