Plans...

Plans are great. But missions are better. 

Missions survive when plans fail, and plans almost always fail. 

~Godin

For us, our adoption journey is a mission.   
And trust me, we've had many plans for this journey - what country we would adopt from, how old our little one would be, how quickly we would finish our paperwork, how informed we would be, how long this stage and that stage would take, how quickly we would bring our little one home.  
Every single plan we've had, has turned out looking differently than we thought it would.  Each plan has failed to turn out as expected. But our mission remains intact.   
There are so many more "plans" left in this journey.  When we'll travel, how we'll function in Congo, what our first meeting with our baby girl will be like, how quickly we'll head back home, how our family will function once we get home...the list could go on and on. I'm sure many of those "plans" will not happen as expected either. But our mission will remain strong - to put our love into action, expand our family, "parent" all our children well, and ultimately point them to their Heavenly Father.


People ask if we're discouraged that things are not going exactly as planned.  I'm not sure that discouraged is the right word.  Some days, we feel sad.  Sad, because we just long to bring our little one home.  But I think true discouragement hasn't set in because we know the One who holds this mission in His hands.  We'll hold our plans loosely and rest peacefully in knowing that when we're on a mission from God, His plans never fail!