2 Year Anniversary...and We Don't Mean Our Wedding!

Today marks our two year anniversary of officially starting the adoption process!  Two years to this date, we signed our very first paper work and "officially" decided we would pursue an Ethiopian adoption.  I remember that day like it was yesterday, totally freaked out about the changes that would come over the next year or two as we pursued starting our family in a totally unconventional way.  Little did I know that the I would be sitting at my kitchen table blogging tonight...still waiting for a referral.  This journey has been exactly the title of our blog..."Life Unexpected."  We have had days when we have been blessed beyond measure, days where we have bawled our eyes out, days where we have dreamed of that day when we would get a call, days where we have felt like throwing in the towel, days where we have been encouraged, days when we have been discouraged, days where we have wondered if this process really has a light at the end of the tunnel, and days where we just look at each other and realize how incredibly blessed we truly are.

If I could describe the past 24 months of our life, I would describe it as just that..."blessed."  The past 24 months have challenged us as a couple and shaped our hearts in ways that we could never describe.  Those months have made us a stronger couple, and I believe, grown a love in our hearts for our children that we could have never imagined from the start.  At the same time, Nate and I have been given the gift of time together as a couple, and feel indebted forever to God for the that time...it has deepened our friendship and our love for each other.

Yesterday, we were out running around as we usually do, and dropped by one of our favorite places...Dunkin Donuts.  We frequent that place regularly, and are known by several of the workers there.  We normally go through the drive through, but Nate had to use the bathroom, so we ran inside.   I saw one of our favorite workers there, who said to me, "I haven't seen you in a long time!  Where have you been?"  She then asked me, "Where is your daughter?"  I told her that we didn't have any kids, and it was probably one of the million teenagers we bring from our youth group!  And then I shared with her that we were adopting from Ethiopia.  Her mouth dropped and she exclaimed, "What???  I am from Ethiopia!!!"  She was ecstatic!  Here she had been waiting on us for the past couple of years and we never made that connection.  Come to find out, she is friends with our Ethiopian friends across the street.  She said, "Wait a minute...did you have a big Ethiopian Dinner that Aster helped you with back at Christmas time?"  We said yes and then she got all excited again and said, "I was supposed to help with that!"  What a small world!  After we both got over the incredible connection we had just made, she told me her name was Alem, and she exclaimed that we had to come have dinner at her house because now we were family to her...the same words that Aster (our Ethiopian friend) would say to us the very first time we met her and her family.

It's moments like those...moments where strangers suddenly become family...that you catch a glimpse of what the future to come is going to look like.   Those are the moments that make us press on and remind us...in the end it's all going to be worth it!