plans

I just flew out to MO last week to spend the week with my best girl friend. All our girls (4 total) hung out for the week while her hubby was gone on a mission trip (incidentally mine was gone from home as well, also on a mission trip). Rather than sit around with our girls alone, in our separate states, I booked a flight a few months ago to her place to pass the time and have a whole bunch more fun! :)

Now it's always interesting to people-watch at airports, but the conversation that stayed with me actually happened on the plane (between the two seatmates in front of Lynn and I). She was discussing her and her husband's plan for children with the stranger sitting next to her. Apparently, she has two children already, that are both boys, 15 mos. apart. She had a brother a little over a year older than her growing up and they are inseparable and she wanted the same for her children, etc. She was now pregnant with baby #3, who they perfectly planned to arrive this fall, when her second son will be in kindergarten. They hope to then add a fourth that will also be between 12 and 18 mos. behind his/her third sibling.
.....
I stayed with my best friend who has three beautiful daughters. Her and her hubby's history includes one early miscarriage, followed by two girls, born 17 mos. apart and now a third who is just 8 weeks old this week (who is 3.5 yrs behind her sister). Her and her husband were awaiting an adoption placement with an adoptive mother when they discovered she was pregnant with their latest. They have a heart for adoption and truly want to adopt a child(ren) in need. After withdrawing their paperwork for the time being, I have no doubt they will again return to the process.
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A friend of mine, who is unable to have children and has already adopted a daughter (who is now 4), was recently placed with an adoptive mother who is to give birth to her son early August. She just got news this week that the mother has decided to keep and raise her son afterall. She feels devastated, as if she had just lost a baby she herself was carrying.
.....
I guess there's no real thread between all of these situations, except that the Lord pressed upon me a verse this week. Thinking back to my "history" and forward to my "future"... no one person's story is the same. Some have "perfect planning," some have "surprise planning," others have "dependant on anothers' planning," and yet all have this common thread,

"For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11)

My plans went out the window, as I know some of you reading this blog can identify with. But, ladies, we can all rest in the future He promises us, whether or not it shows up in the form of our plan or not.