Transition Sunny Side Up Please!

Have you ever heard the cliche`that "every season has a reason", and "when winter has passed then spring blooms a new rose"? I have to admit that when it comes to life and transition in general I tend to be a glass is half empty type of person. I like to think of myself as a happy person, but I would be lying if I always saw the sunny side of situations. This could have been a learned habit that my profession has instilled in me. Being a nurse in surgery means that you are usually seeing people in their worst moments and the outcomes are not always what you expected. Before that I worked in a pediatric psychiatric facility, and boy oh boy I saw some doozies. The things that people do to children makes me an advocate for government forced sterilization sometimes. ( Of course that is not right, but for real!) Theses atmospheres tends to layer you with a hard shell and can dull your optimism over the years. I also think that life and some of it's difficulty can set you up to look at your glass and hope that there is a faucet close, or you will die of thirst. For me I think that it is a combination of both. However I am determined that even if the glass is half empty, that I will expect for it to be replenished or that I will have the grace to fast. I refuse to allow my heart to slip down the slope of bitterness which can lead to heart ache and ultimately physical illness.

In the Cooper house we are in a season of transition!! I feel more positive as we enter into 2012 as a season of moving forwards, even though it looks a little strange.Steven and I are preparing to be parents to an infant (or two) and that is exciting. However we are also preparing to be separated for 6 months, and that isn't so exciting.  With a new baby on the horizon we are preparing our home in many ways. We are transitioning Shiloh into a new room and making her old room into a nursery again. This requires me to go through a lot of stored stuff and clean it out. This is hard for me since I inherited a little bit of what I like to call a spirit of remembering. Steven on the other hand likes to call it being a pack rat.:-) I try to keep it under control, there are still boxes of old pictures and crafting supplies. I am not sure what to do with all these photos and as much as I would love to be crafty, there are just not enough hours in my days. So my job is to transition from "remembering" to having more space for more little ones. I am determined though and after all what is more important stuff that reminds me of the past or things for the little one that is the future for our little family?

Shiloh is going to transition from being an only child to a full blown big sister. I know that she is going to be amazing, but it may not be so pretty in the beginning. I have been praying for her little heart to fully accept her new sibling and  we are teaching her to pray now for our baby. It is really precious to hear her pray for our baby and to see that she is starting to understand this process and also a little bit that she also was adopted. We have started talking about tummy mommies and how she came to be in our family. It is funny talking to a three year old about  such deep things. A conversation will go something like this: Me: Shiloh you were adopted too. We prayed and prayed and God brought you to us. Shiloh: Why, Me: Because God loves you so much that He wanted you to live and have a family that would teach you about His son Jesus. Shiloh: Oh..., mommy can I have some frozen mango. I am hungry. Me: Ok, sure. It is kind of nice though, I get time to practice my answers for when we really do sit down and have a deep discussion.

I also feel like my heart is going through another season of transitioning from old patterns and thoughts  and digging in again. Everything that we go through teaches us and really just makes us revisit our own inability and our real need for God's mercy and His guidance in our lives. I get so busy in the stuff of life sometimes that I can go long periods of time where I do drive by prayers and little to no deep reading of the word. I hate that I do it, but there it is. I confess to you all that I am not the scholar that I would wish. But I feel that is why God brings transition and refocuses me so that the important things come to the forefront and He in His kindness leads my heart to repentance and calls me back to the thing that brings life to my soul. Him. I cannot tell you how much I feel him when I sit for just a second in the prayer room, or when we are listening to the teaching on Sunday. When you work in a secular field day in and day out, hearing the "f"bomb every other sentence and constant negative attitudes, it is such a breath of fresh air to come into the prayer room and just get hit in the chest with Holy Spirit and God's love over me. Even in the weakest moments or when I am so far away, His love is so strong. So let the winds blow and Lord be in my garden with me through all of this, for You are the only one who makes all things beautiful.

Ecclesiastes 3

 ¹To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

 ²A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

 ³A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

 ⁴A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

 ⁵A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

 ⁶A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

 ⁷A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

 ⁸A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

 ⁹What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

 ¹⁰I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

 ¹¹He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

 ¹²I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

 ¹³And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

 ¹⁴I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

 ¹⁵That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.