The Doyles Are Coming Home!

My heart is so full, it is singing! We just got back from church where Ryan Doyle was announced as our youth pastor. That means that Ryan and Lindsey and their family are moving back to Franklin! That means that Asher and Judah will all be growing up together. I can hardly even fathom this truth. Who would have foreseen this turn of events? I tell you who...God! I think that is at the heart of why I am so joyful: today has given testament to the truth that God has a plan and that He really does direct the courses of men.

I remember this time last year when we were at a going-away party for Ryan and Adam. I sat in a circle of people who worked with these two godly men, and I wept as I had to tell them and their families goodbye. Danny and I even told Ryan that if he moved to Scotland to plant a church, we were going with him. And we meant it! Fast forward several months to the Women's Conference at our church where I literally bumped into Lindsey. After I told her that Danny and I were adopting, she cried and said that she and Ryan were feeling led to do the same thing. A week later, she and Ryan had applied to Amani, and they were well on their way to getting Judah, one of Asher's friends, as a member of their forever family.

None of us saw the Doyles moving back home so that Ryan could be the youth pastor of our church. None of us saw Judah and Asher growing up together. None of us saw Ryan speaking into the hearts of my personal children. Yet, God saw. He had a plan all along. He knew before we were born that our lives would be knit together. He knew...He knew!

And so my heart sings today! I am not making this plan up as I go along. I walk in the shadow of a God who loves me and who cares for me. I walk in the shadow of a God who can make beauty from ashes. I walk in the shadow of a God who promises to work all things for good for those people who love him and who are called according to His purpose. Wow!

And so, I am excited to say that the Doyles are moving home! We love this family so dearly. Welcome home, friends! Welcome home!

Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails. Prov 19:21