difficult to describe

We had a date night and some very dear friends of ours met with us. 2 of their children babysat the kids while Tanya and I had some valuable time to talk, connect and laugh together. I say laugh together because that is what felt so good. So often when we are home together, the busyness of our house doesn't allow us to really connect, be goofy and just enjoy each other. It was good to do that tonight.
The couple that met with us was encouraging to us in a deep way. They too have experienced adoption and the difficult to describe emotions that come with it. They understood so many things and graciously, lovingly ministered to us. Here's some of the verses God used in our conversation tonight:

Matthew 5:39 Jesus teaching us about being "non-reactive"
John 8 --- Jesus gentle handling of the woman is a testimony to his kindness and truth.
Romans 2:2-4 - 2 We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. 3 Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? 4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?
Leviticus 19:34 You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. 35 “You shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity. 36 You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin: I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. 37 And you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules, and do them: I am the Lord.”

Dueteronomy 8:2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years. 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. 6 So you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God by walking in his ways and by fearing him. 7 For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills, 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and honey, 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing, a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.

What a gift of grace to have these people who care deeply for our souls and for the spiritual well being of our children. They acted out 1 Thess. 2:12 by Exhorting us and encouraging us to walk as parents in a manner worthy of God.