This is a repost--and I do not have the author's name...but I think this is beautiful and wanted to share....

Twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38 

when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.

Their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air. 

 They could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.

They were filled with such joy; they didn't know what to say. 

 They remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.

"Where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse. 

 "This is heaven" declared a small boy. "We're spending Christmas at God's house".

When what to their wondering eyes did appear, 

but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.

He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same. 

 Then He opened His arms and He called them by name.

And in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring.

Those children all flew into the arms of their King 

and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace, 

one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.

And as if He could read all the questions she had, 

He gently whispered to her "I'll take care of mom and dad".

Then He looked down on earth, the world far below

He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow and woe.

Then He closed His eyes and he outstretched His hand, 

"Let my power and presence re-enter this land!"

"May this country be delivered from the hands of fools. 

 I'm taking back my nation, I'm taking back my schools!"

Then He and the children stood up without a sound. 

 "Come now my children let me show you around."

Excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran. 

 All displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.

And I hear Him proclaim as He walked out of sight, 

"In the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."

Was I Thankful...?

I was so excited about doing the Thankfulness Challenge in November.  I thought that it would be so easy to come up with something every day that I was grateful for.  

Instead, I bailed.

There is a reason for this, but it's not a good excuse.  You see, we were approved foster/adoptive parents with a private agency until this past September.  On September 5th, we were contacted by my husband's cousin because she wanted us to foster her son.  She does not have housing and was being told by CYS that she would have to surrender her son to care.  We agreed, and were contacted the next day by CYS to take part in a "safety plan" that would allow us to take him in without legal rights.  We turned down the safety plan, but told the social worker that we would take the child if he entered into care.

We found out days later through family that the child had entered into care.  We began calling CYS, but it was over a week before we spoke to anyone.  Nearly 2 weeks later, we were told that we must sever ties with our current agency and be approved with Chester County to provide kinship foster care.  We have spent the past 2 months going through the approval process.

We feel that he have been up against resistance from the start.  We were granted weekly visitation, but no one has been able to schedule more than an hour at a time—approximately every other week.  We have no idea when (or if) we will be able to become his kinship Caregivers.  On top of that, we haven't been able to take any other children into our home...

However, I realized today that I'm doing it wrong.  I've been looking for reasons to be grateful in spite of what we are going through.  

No. I need to be grateful for the experience.  There is nothing that we face in life without reason.  God may or may not choose to let us in on the reason, but he has the best planned for us.  And I can keep the promise of Psalm 18:6 in my heart:

In my distress I called upon the LORD, 

And cried to my God for help ; 

He heard my voice out of His temple, 

And my cry for help before Him came into His ears.

Today I choose to be grateful for my trials.  I choose to be thankful the no matter what I am going through  He hears me when I am crying out.  I have no idea when and how this trial will end, but I can be sure that no matter what, God is listening to me and carrying me throughout.