Worth the Wait...

Throughout our adoption process, we learned the true art of waiting.  While I wouldn't say that we became "masters" at waiting, by the end, I think we understood the importance of it.  We have officially been home with Biruk for 3 months and while it has been everything we hoped and dreamed for and more, it has been a transition.  Now, when I look back over those three years of waiting, some of which included days that I felt like completely giving up, I can see that God was shaping us and working behind the scenes so that his perfect story could be lived out.

Waiting is never easy.  When we want something to happen so badly, we dwell on, we beg for it, and we expend every ounce of our energy thinking about it.  If given the choice to not wait and just get what we wanted, most of us would seize that opportunity.  At the beginning of our journey, if we could have chosen to have our prayers answered right then and there, getting what we wanted so badly, we probably would have paid money for that to happen.

I can honestly say, three years later, I am so thankful that God doesn't work that way.  I am thankful that God uses the wait process to shape us.  I am thankful that in the waiting we learn to be dependent on God rather than dependent on ourselves.  I am thankful that in the waiting our view of God changes in a way that by the end, we want nothing more than to be completely in his will.

Without the waiting process, we would have never met our son.

Tonight, after spending some time with our friends and taking Biruk Trick or Treating for the first time (something we have waited a LONG time to do), my friend Alicia posted a picture of our boys with this caption, "We've waited a long time for tonight!"  Alicia has been a friend along the journey, who also happens to be the mom of an adopted child she also waited for.  If you were to ask Alicia, I think she would agree, the waiting was worth it.

As I fed Biruk his bottle tonight, holding him in my arms and then tucking him in bed, I found myself smiling.  Some things are totally worth the wait!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Donut Story

Image
When I was about five years into being a Youth Pastor, I met a group of kids that changed my life.  Many of you reading this, who know me personally, have probably heard me talk about them numerous times.  Nate and I happened to live in the parsonage next door to the church I was serving at at the time, and would routinely come home to a group of boys that I would have described then as "rough around the edges."   They dressed mostly in black, had long hair, and sometimes even had black painted fingernails.  They loved to smoke, and they loved to skateboard.  After a few days of watching them through our window, Nate and I went outside and brought them some sodas.  We introduced ourselves, told them I was the Youth Pastor at the church, and invited them to come to youth group.  While they politely declined our invitation, we continued to invite them over and over again, attempted to skate with them, and fill them with snacks.  Until one day, ...
Read more

A Mother's Heart...

Image
It was the night before we were ready to leave for Ethiopia that it dawned on me. We hadn’t given the necklace to Biruk yet. When we had exchanged necklaces with his birth mom ten years prior at the orphanage, we had no idea when we would give it to him. We just knew that we wanted him to be old enough to appreciate it, as it would be the only thing he would have from her. We had no idea if we would ever see her again.  There have been several moments in our journey where I’ve had to pinch myself, because it has felt like I was dreaming. That night as we put our final things in our suitcases, took a deep breath, and came to the realization that we were not only taking our kids to Ethiopia, but that Biruk would in fact meet his birth mom…well, you had to pinch me, because it felt like I was dreaming. It also felt like the perfect moment to share this gift that we had been holding onto for 10 years. So we pulled out the necklace and gave it to Biruk. While words can be few and...
Read more

Stories Matter

Image
Yesterday, my family and I found ourselves at a local elementary school’s culture club, presenting about our trip to Ethiopia. Even as I write those words, it kind of blows my mind how God has continued to use our story in unexpected places. When the kids were old enough to understand, we began to talk about taking them back to their birth country when they turned 10. We figured at 10, they would be old enough to be pretty good travelers, but still approach the adventure with a childlike wonder. What we didn’t plan on, was that the year Biruk turned 10 would come on the heels of me taking a brand new job, our family moving to a new state, and buying our very first house, in an economy that felt as though it was tanking!  I remember talking to my counselor one day and sharing with him that while we had always promised this trip to our kids, it just didn’t seem to make financial sense. After all, last time I checked, Southwest Airlines does not travel to Africa. He said someth...
Read more