I want to quickly respond to so much wonderful feedback I've gotten this week on my Hesitations post. Let me first say that after I posted that, I felt soooo much better! Isn't life funny that way? When we get it out of our brains, we feel better! The morning after I posted, I copied that darn little profile of mine, bound it, put clear cover on it and shipped it off to Noreen. Phew! Off my desk and onto hers! :-) I don't think I'm done praying; I know I'm not. But next step, DONE. Please keep praying for God's thoughts to be mine.`I got some of the greatest encouragement from you when I threw out my concerns and I just have to share it here. (For those of you that I paraphrased, forgive me if I got it wrong) Sasha shared with me that she is beginning to feel more at home in the uncomfortable places that God calls her. Perhaps, she said, we are more precisely in God's will when we feel a little off kilter because God is stretching us! Amen to THAT sentiment! Pray for Sasha -- she has a house full including a precious new daughter from Ethiopia! Shana, my long-time friend (notice I didn't say old -- haha) wrote this to me today:`"I remember us talking before Seth, how nervous, uncertain, excited, scared, ready you were. You were on the path to becoming a mom. A path I believe was His path for you and for Seth. Your feelings of uncertainty, joy, nervousness are all the emotions and the roller coaster a mom goes through as she gets ready to conceive and then after conception. . . . Does a peace every come when you're 100% certain that this is the right thing for your family? Yes it does when you're holding your baby in the middle of the night and it is just you and your baby and there is silence and a peace. When you are sitting there and watching Seth give his brother or sister a bottle, or he is 'holding' him and rubbing his cheek saying "shhh, shhh, shhh" like he has seen you do, that is peace. . . . . And what if this, having a second baby, means you don't find Mr Right? Well this is my thought. "What if" you get on a plane to Haiti, you start working and Mr Right rides in on his white rental car ready to help build a new something for the orphanage. What if he is on a mission trip, feeling lost and alone but knowing there are others who are more desperate and alone than him. . . . . God has a plan, it isn't your plan, it isn't my plan, but His. ANYthing is possible Deb."`That's the message I can't seem to hear enough of. Let's just say I've been watching for my white rental car all day. Ha!! Then there was Rene. I talked to her about the confusion part of my posting. (Rene went to seminary, so I check a lot of my arm chair theology out on her.) She agreed!! Yippee! She also told me, however, that she thinks God DOES cause confusion at times. Just look at Job. He was sooo confused and could not figure out what was happening to him! (I'm about to study Job now, so watch out!) Anyway, Rene affirmed me right where I am (per usual) with all of my questions and wonderings. Of course, she still can't find her magic answer box....`Nancy. Old friend, new connection. What Nancy said to me also touched my heart. She wrote, "And this really struck me -- I know you are struggling with concerns over what people think. But, what I didn't read was where you point out that, obviously, when it comes down to it, you are strong enough to push it aside because you have done exactly what most in the general populous would advise against. And you did so because you were called to do it. Talk about glorifying God!!!!" That made me giggle. She's right. I'm worried and I've already done it. Duh! `And, Katie. She reminded me that the world's wisdom is not God's wisdom and that He can handle other people and their issues. My job (our jobs) is to be obedient. And then she wrote, "So we both have hesitations, and yet, it sounds as if we both kind of know deep down that we need to take that next step of faith." AMEN to that, sister. She's right. ``There are so many others of you who encourage me: Mama, Lisa, Nolie, Holly, Rhonda, Wendy, Carissa, Jennifer, Julie, . . . . The list goes on and on. THANK YOU for standing with me, encouraging me, and most of all, praying for me. I know God has an amazing plan for my family and I can't wait to watch it unfold -- no matter what the plan is!