Home

Home. . . Home, sweet home. Home is where the heart is. There is no place like home.

Being so far away from what I always knew as home has been a beautiful, sometimes achy, growth-filled experience.

Home helps shape us. It can be a place of comfort or craziness. Home can mean a million different things. Family. Food. Friends. Plains. Mountains. Trees. Rest. Joy. Pain. Light. Love. Peace. Some can make a home anywhere. Some have the same home their entire life. There are even some who do not claim anywhere to be home. What does home mean to you?

Take a moment today to thank God for home. . . maybe that's where you're at today. Maybe it's a home you knew long ago, far away, or maybe it's thanking Him for the promise of our TRUE home for eternity.

Join with me in praying for the precious lives that are coming home to their forever families. They have hard days, too, and they miss what they knew of home. It may be difficult for us to comprehend, especially since some of these children grow up in horrific conditions. They may have not had every need met, or every care cared for. But alas, that was home. Pray that their hearts find rest as God shapes and grows them into their new home. Pray that Romans 12:9-12 will come alive for them. . . that they will know love to be sincere. They will hate evil and cling to good. That they will experience devotion, honor, and a zeal for His Spirit. Pray they will know joy in hope, patience in affliction, and become faithful in prayer. Believe with me that the God of all comfort will comfort them and help them know home.

This weekend, I will be in Kansas for a sweet visit home. (Ruby red slippers and clicking my heels has proved insufficient. . . but a plane ride and a few hours in the car will get me there.) I am so looking forward to the familiarity, the hugs, laughs, and the sweet time there. I will also be happy to return to sweet home, Alabama. I am grateful for how much I have learned to appreciate home in my absence from it. I am thankful for home here. And I know some day we will all be at home- in our TRUE Home- forever.

Michelle Staab
Birthmother Counselor