Part of something much bigger?

Even as fast as the Abigail references were coming last week, this weekend has been one that we couldn't have anticipated.  God has certainly been working overtime in our lives. 

Friday night we went out on a long overdue date night to celebrate our anniversary (which was back in October).  After a busy couple weeks, we had the chance to really take the time to talk at more length (our own little bubble amidst the peanut shells, cow bells and chaos of a busy restaurant) about what God has been doing in our lives and where we're seeing Him leading us. 

How it's becoming more and more clear that He has been at work in our lives for a very long time.  He clearly had a big hand in our move back to the Midwest six years ago, and brought us to our current church shortly after that.  A walk back through all the different ways that God has been at work in our lives.

And we talked about where it seemed that God might be leading us. That we've both been getting messages along the same lines.   That feeding the hungry and clothing those without and giving to the poor are increasingly important.  That maybe Abigail won't be coming to us ~ but we may be going to her.  That just maybe we're being called to be a part of something much bigger than just one child's life.  That maybe God's work is about to become ours in a much more real way.

I had been praying that the next step in this journey would be revealed to my husband, so that I wouldn't get carried away with the "what if it's this" or "maybe it's that" and somehow get ahead of God.  Hearing that God has been planting thoughts in him for a brand-new direction, that line up with where God has been leading my heart was such confirmation!  And it explained a whole lot of our indecision in some seemingly unrelated areas of life.

By the end of the evening, it was pretty clear that God was calling us to something much bigger.  Our prayers that night, the seventh day of praying together, were at a whole new level of joyfully submitting to God's plans for us.  And then we realized the significance of the date.  November 11th.  Exactly nine months after the promise of Abigail on February 11th.