Just since my post last Monday, a few things on the "what are we waiting for" list can be checked off! Our I-800 has been approved by homeland security and our new passports have arrived! I praise the Lord for bringing those things to pass. With those two events, the sting of waiting has increased a bit. As we get closer to a travel date, the ache in my heart has definitely intensified. Our whole family feels it but what can we do? There's no choice but to wait so I take that "ache" straight to my Father in Heaven and tell Him what He already knows. I tell him how unbelievably grateful our family is to be chosen for this adoption but also how hard it is to be patient. He reminds me of how short the wait for Kyle and Ezekiel seems now that it's in the rear view mirror. I laugh because, even after the many times He has carried me through I start to think "but this wait is a lot different . . .". And it is. This wait is for an entirely different person. This wait will change our lives in different ways from the others. This person comes to us with different needs, hopes and plans.
Anyone who believes adoption is a "good deed" or an act of charity has clearly never adopted. Adoption is, for the adoptive family, like being given an enormous, priceless gift that you always wanted but know you don't truly deserve. Human life is God's best creation. He said it in Genesis, He redeemed it with His blood, He pursues it with His love. He goes to great lengths to have relationship with it. There's nothing so precious to our Father as human life so, to be entrusted with yet another one . . . "humbling" does not even begin to touch the way our family feels.
While I wait, I concentrate on the blessings that already sleep under this roof every night (the dogs, fish and gecko included). Let me share just a few:
Our oldest son at his junior prom
Daddy and daughter formal photo
Sweet and funny Kyle
Ezekiel - the perfect baby!
Lemuel - always ready for an adventure
Matthew 7:11 (English Standard Version)
11If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
