Half Marathons and Other Uphill Battles...



Last week I found myself being challenged to a 7.5 mile run. Maybe I should back up. Over New Year's, while I was on a mission trip to Honduras, my husband decided to announce to our youth group that he and I would begin training for a half marathon in June. While I was in fact a runner in high school, I have not run that much in a while. Needless to say, we are doing it, and it has actually been good for us as a couple to work toward the goal together. Back to the 7 mile run...that morning we had decided to run with some friends. I quickly found my personal pace and began running by myself. I am not one that loves being by myself, but I was so thankful for those moments to reflect on this adoption journey.

I have discovered that the adoption journey is much like running a half marathon. It's not easy...it's a lot of hard work (the waiting part anyway), at times you feel like throwing in the towel, and there are A LOT of times that it feels like an uphill battle (seriously, I swear that half of that 7.5 mile run was uphill and I thought I was going to die). There were so many times that I felt like giving up as I chugged along that run. I just kept giving myself this motivational speech..."You can do this. You can proved to yourself that you can do it without walking. Prove to yourself that you will finish (even if your legs do feel like jelly and you think you now have the knees of a 70 year old!)

These days I feel like I am giving myself the same motivational speech when it comes to our adoption process. A couple of weeks ago, we were "forewarned" that our wait time (the time it takes until we are matched with a child) would be increasing due to systems in the region of Ethiopia our agency works with. I was extremely discouraged about that and I didn't even know how much they were going to increase it by. That week, on one of the days I felt most broken, my friend Jenn left me an amazing gift at my door step. She had just returned from picking up her son in Ethiopia and left a bag of coffee (true Ethiopian coffee), an Ethiopian key chain and a book called, "From Ashes To Africa." She shared her empathy with me through a card that touched my heart and ended with the words, "It won't be long before our Ethiopian cuties are running around together!" I immediately bawled out of gratefulness for a friend who understands the journey.

Well, this weekend we found out just how long that wait will be. Our agency has now increased our wait time to 18-24 months. When we started it was to be a 6-8 month wait and we are currently at 12 months. My sister in law, Kim, gave me a card this weekend that said, "Life isn't Fair!" That is kind of how I feel right now. I don't think I understood the depth of how much the process would break my heart some days. I don't think I realized how attached I would get to children I haven't even met. I don't think I realized how difficult it is to wait. At the same time, I know that there is an end to this journey, and that end will actually turn out to be the beginning of a brand new adventurous journey...the start of a family.

This past weekend, I was in Boston for a youth event and had the opportunity to spend time with my sisters and nieces. My sister Kristen, was ringing my 5 year old niece Emma to church, when they got stopped at a light. There were a bunch of people running in a half- s. Emma said to Kristen, "Auntie...why are all those people not in church? It's Sunday." My sister said to her, "Well Emma, not everyone knows who Jesus is. Some people don't want to go to church." Emma thought about that for a minute and said, "Well, then we are going to have to throw a really big party to tell everyone about Jesus. I don't know where we are going to get that many decorations though. We will have to invite everyone from Maryland and Boston and Ethiopia!"

The end will be worth the wait. One day we will bring our children home and introduce them to some amazing nieces, aunties, uncles, nephews, grammies and pop-pops who have been praying like crazy. Nate and I, along with our family and friends with love on them like crazy and pray that they will know and understand the love of Jesus through the way we care for them. We will probably throw a huge party with lots of decorations, and for us the journey won't be over, it will have just begun. In the mean time, these days I find myself praying that God will use our waiting time and our journey to accomplish things and reach people in ways we could never imagine.

Comments

  1. TiffSMarch 31, 2012 at 6:37 PM

    Hi Andrea,
    I just wanted to encourage you as you wait for your little one. I have two close friends who both adopted from Ethiopia--one was about 1 1/2 years ago and one just brought home her little boy about a month ago. They were both amazing to watch with their patience in waiting for God's timing, although both struggled with times when they wished for their own timing! I'll be praying that God will comfort you in times when it's tough.

    Tiffany (Bowen)Seaman (from the youth group at Bel Air Church of the Naz many many years ago!)

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