Skip to main content

The Broken Necklace

Sometimes broken things just can’t be fixed.

A broken heart, a broken promise, a broken person...a shattered vase.

Sometimes broken things heal crooked, and the pieces don’t quite fit anymore.

But sometimes they can.

It takes broken soil to produce a crop.
Broken clouds to bring rain.
And broken grain to give bread.

Sometimes things need to be broken, to become stronger.

We’ve found ourselves faced with a tough week, yet again. Some days are good, but then there are others, where it would just be nice to curl up, and not even get out of bed, to face what lies ahead. 

Sometimes things just feel broken.

It has been recommended that we apply for adoption grants. The process is lengthy, a lot of paperwork, providing copies of our home study, previous income tax returns, and questions. Lots of questions. Many of the places that offer grants, they have stipulations, and limits on age requirements, or income requirements, and so there are many adoption grants that we do not even qualify for. But, we’ve found a few that we do, and we’ve applied. 

And we've waited. 

Just this past week, we got a response from one of them, and after review, and considering all the families and their need, that at this time they are sorry they cannot offer a grant to our family.

After receiving notification that we were not selected to receive a grant, we did get in the mail from them, a card encouraging us to keep pressing forward. 

Inside that card was a tiny plastic package with a necklace in it. I am familiar with the place the necklace came from; I ordered one for myself awhile back, to help support other families in the process of adopting. However, the envelope was mangled, and appeared the seal had been broken.

Inside that plastic package was a broken necklace, without the charm that I know should have been there. Our piece of mail was tattered, and obviously had a rough ride making its way through the postal service to get to our home.

It hurt. I felt yet again, broken. There they were, trying to sow seeds of hope into our lives, and encourage us, and we were left with just a broken necklace.

But this week, every day, as I've walked past that necklace laying on the counter, I've felt that the Lord has been trying to tell me something about that broken necklace.

Broken things can become blessed things if we let God do the mending. And if we choose, we can see beauty in the brokenness.  

Matthew West has a new song out called “Broken Things,” in the second verse of the song it says: 

The pages of history they tell me it’s true
That it’s never the perfect; it’s always the ones with the scars that you use
It’s the rebels and the prodigals; it’s the humble and the weak
All the misfit heroes You chose
Tell me there’s hope for someone like me.

You can't use an egg, unless it's broken. Lord, use my brokenness.

-Amber

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thinking Back | Looking Forward

One year ago today, we were completing our fourth and final homestudy. Just a short month later would find out that we were homestudy approved. It's been a long year in some ways, but I remember the whirlwind of it all in the beginning, just like it was yesterday. So many requirements to be met, and me; I want to have everything done right now, and done the right way the first time. And now, some days are just quiet. Very quiet. Going into adoption, we knew we'd be faced with a wait. We went into this process knowing that the average wait in adoption is one to two years. Does knowing that make it any easier enduring the wait? Not at all. However, we know that in time, this calling to adoption that was placed on our lives, will all come together. And when it does, we will understand the things that right now we do not. Over the past year while getting calls about potential situations, both with Choosing Hope Adoptions, and the National Down Syndrome Adoption Network, saying ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Help us Bring Home our Missing Piece

Starting the New Year with "Help us Bring Home our Missing Piece" Fundraiser! As many of you know, we are home study approved, and we are only waiting for a family to be matched with! Placement of a child could be a soon as next month, in the months to come, or even in a year. We simply do not know! And as we all know, adoption is not cheap. While we are contributing, saving, and working to take care of the cost that surrounds adoption, we have given you, our friends and fami ly, many ways to be a part of this adoption. And we thank you for the outpouring of support you have been to us in our journey so far! We know that God is writing a story here and we are simply following his path, and plan for our lives! We have two puzzles that we’ve created; each 11x14 puzzle is made up of 252 pieces. We are “selling” each puzzle piece for $20.00. You can choose to buy 1, 2, 3, or 10 pieces! There is no limit! Once you purchase a piece, we will write your name on the back of...
Post a Comment
Read more

thirty four

Missing pieces do more than complete a puzzle. They fill in an empty space. It's been a good week! At the beginning of 2017 we launched our newest fundraiser; "Help us Bring Home our Missing Piece." After kicking off the fundraiser, we sold our first two pieces! And then, last Sunday, we set a goal to "sell" 10 puzzle pieces. Our goal of 10 puzzle pieces was far exceeded; we sold 34 just this week! On Facebook, we mentioned the wonderful gentleman who wanted to purchase all 10 pieces, to help us meet our goal. He was purchasing them in honor of his family members. When listing out those family members, he named 12, and said he wanted to buy all 12. After he wrote them down, and was figuring it all up, he ended up with 15 pieces! A sweet friend of mine, her prayer group (15 individuals), all of whom we do not know, they all purchased one piece each as well! What a blessing! Two of Kevin's friends from work purchased one each. And a family member also ...
Post a Comment
Read more