Hey, friends!
I don’t write often about our adoption for several reasons. One, it’s kind of like when the Bible says “Mary pondered all these things in her heart.” A mother’s heart is a deep well, and sometimes it’s just hard to talk about, hard to draw from. Two, there’s not much to tell in regard to an update as we simply wait for a referral. And three, we learned from our first adoption to not tell people much in the way of details because those details will change and rarely for the better, then you have to remember who you told and re-update them. Not fun.
Today, I’m writing just to inform people, especially those bless-ed people who are praying for us and the children we will someday adopt! We’re, for the first time in 18 months, in what I would call a discouraging place. On one hand, we have been told news that is wonderful, the kind of things expectant parents want to hear…all in all, children are coming home from Haiti on a regular basis, there’s not any “problems” in our particular case, and the country’s adoption process while slow is definitely growing in steadiness. On the other hand though, we’ve been told news that is saddening- my expectations on the timeline were misguided. I can’t go into detail but in all of the unknowns in adoption, there were a few pieces of info I was told had been very stable. Not anymore. I tried so hard to not have expectations. I tried so hard to keep a heart of surrender, knowing God’s timing is perfect.
It’s time to re-adjust my vision and the process I expected to go through to get to these kids. Like I have said in past blogs, I’m genuinely mostly sad for these children who will sit and wait so much longer, knowing they have parents waiting for them but not able to come for them. It’s tragic. I have to admit it makes me wonder if we should have gotten involved in this process, and then I think, “Really? So you really think it would have been better to just leave them there forever?” We’ve entered into their suffering, we chose to be a part. We chose to carry it with them. Sometimes it does feel like more than I should have taken on, but I do not hear the Lord saying to quit.
I guess I’m writing this blog today to say there are some really dark seasons in adopting. God’s Word has been my ally all this time, and I’ll be turning to it even more so now!
He reminds me of Matthew 10 a lot. Verse 30 talks about His care for the sparrows and how we are worth much more than sparrows…
Verse 39 says if we try to live on the safe side in order to keep our life (keep our sanity! Our happiness! Our will and our way!) we’ll only lose it, but if we lose our life for His purposes, we find Life. Capital L life. Life in the unseen, a pipeline to joy and hope that lifts our eyes above this world.
And then Jesus shares in Verse 42 that anyone who would give even a cup of cold water to these little ones would “certainly not lose His reward.” We’re not doing this for rewards but I am grateful for the reminder that Jesus is for this. Undoubtedly.
