Waiting...The Story of Our Life

Yesterday we spent some time with some students from our youth group preparing meals for people in our church who needed a little encouragement.  While we were in the kitchen, one of my 7th graders said to me, "So when you are you guys going to get Biruk again?"  I replied, "Well, we are just waiting for the Embassy to approve us so that we can travel."  To which she replied something along the lines of, "All you guys do is wait!  If someone was going to write a book about your life it would be called 'The Waiting Life.'  I smiled and thought, she has no idea.

It's been almost two weeks since we were submitted to Embassy and I am going crazy.  We were supposed to lead our youth group on a missions trip to Honduras this week, but we decided that we needed to stay home in case the call comes.  It was a really hard decision to make.  I absolutely love missions, love Honduras, and love when students can catch a glimpse of the world that God sees every day.  I live for that stuff!  We prayed a lot about our decision, knowing that we could probably work it out to jump from the mission trip to our trip to Ethiopia.  As my husband said over and over, "We could do it.  But it probably isn't the best decision."  We both knew we would be extremely tired and emotionally drained and we wanted to be at our best for when Biruk arrives.

And so...we wait.  And we wait.  And we wait.  I have had several people tell me this week "God's timing is perfect."  While I know that, it is still hard to wait.  I feel like I how I imagine pregnant women to feel in their 8th month...just ready to have the baby.  I think we are pretty much as expectant as the average pregnant women, just in a different way.  Nate and I continue to look at each other each day completely overjoyed at the next chapter of our life.  We have bought, washed and folded baby clothes (while crying on the floor of Biruk's room because it is unbelievable that we are going to have a baby in our house).  We have bought several strollers (we kind of went overboard on that one...probably need to return one, and we still haven't even gotten the one we really want!).  We have washed bottles.  We have put up the crib and changing room, decorated the room, and organized all of the things Biruk has already accumulated (check out the pics below).  We are ready to go!

We are beyond expectant.  It's coming.  The dream we have been dreaming for over 8 years.  We are going to have a family.  And so we wait...and we bask in God's goodness, all that he has done, all that he is doing, and all that he is going to do as he continues to reveal his story for our life.  It's going to be an awesome next chapter!



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