This is why we will wait.....

You go along this adoption journey, doing everything everyone asks of you. Sign here, notarize here, re-do this document, this one's too long, this one expired, make this check out to us, that one to them, oh, and that one needs to be a money order. And then, you are finally placed on the waiting list. At this point you're excited, but reserved. You don't want to get too excited because you know you have a long wait. So, you just settle into this rhythm of trying to get through each day, each week, each month, counting the days, but trying not to obsess or even let yourself believe the adoption is really ever going to happen. Then, you kind of stop and think...what are we even waiting for again? Could someone remind me? You've protected yourself from the excitement so much, that you begin to forget what it is you're supposed to be excited about. I walk past the crib set up in the guest room every day and rarely even try to picture it with a child in it. Then, last night I looked up at a picture in the family room and I remembered EXACTLY what we are waiting for....


We are waiting for the day that we get to feel this way about another baby boy. We so often stop and say that we can't imagine any other child as our son, and that's part of the problem, we can't. But, I know that we will. I know that once this little boy becomes a reality, a face, a name, a story, we will feel the same way we felt when we saw Grayson for the first time. I look forward to the day I look up at the pictures in the family room and see BOTH of my boys and think, "I can't imagine any other boys being our sons." And this is why we will wait.

The Darlings passed court today!

One of the families here in the Lafayette area had their court date today. Justin emailed the group just a bit ago and said they passed! Abeba is officially their daughter! Check out their blog to see pictures of their beautiful daughter!

In other, less exciting news...we've been on the waiting list 16 weeks today! We're hanging in there!

Thank goodness God doesn't always give us what we want!

I've been sitting on the computer this afternoon during Grayson's nap, checking email, reading blogs, trying to figure out how long everyone's referrals are taking, trying to figure out when we'll get ours. When we were put on the waiting list on August 27th, I thought we would definitely have our referral in time for Christmas. Well, the current trend suggests we have at least another couple of months to wait. So, I started to feel a little sorry for myself.

Then, I was humbled by a thought. When we were put on the waiting list for Grayson, the wait time was 2-4 weeks. Most people were getting referrals no later than 4 weeks. We were placed on the waiting list on September 9th. I was very patiently waiting up until about the 4 week mark. I then became very impatient and a little sad. I remember crying to Aaron that I just wanted to see a picture of our baby (all seems a little pitiful now as we know we will wait 6 or 7 months for Abram's referral). I thought for sure we would have a referral by Drew and Katrina's wedding on October 7th. As that day came and went I became even more upset.

Thank goodness God doesn't always give us what we want. If we had gotten a referral in 4 weeks as most people did, we would have received a referral on October 9th. Grayson was not born until October 17th. Jeremiah 1:5 says, ""Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart." God had already set Grayson apart for us. However, He couldn't give us pictures of our child in that 4 week window that our agency had promised because OUR son had not yet been born. I continue to be amazed at the awesome ways God has worked in our lives. So many times He does things in such subtle ways that it takes us 2 years and a few minutes of feeling sorry for ourselves before we even recognize His work in our lives. Don't get me wrong, I have always known that Grayson was chosen by God to be our son and that it was only by God's grace and mercy that we brought him home from Guatemala in just over 6 months. However, I'm now able to wait on our referral with a new sense of patience. Jeremiah 1:5 confirms that God knows who our son is and He has already set him apart for us.

I guess I should clarify and say this doesn't mean I won't have days of extreme impatience. It just means that those days will hopefully be fewer and those days will be more tolerable knowing that God has already chosen our son.

As it turned out, we ended up waiting 7 weeks for Grayson's referral. Completely unheard of to wait that long for a referral of a baby boy at that point in time for our agency. But, thank goodness we did wait that long. And, 7 weeks or 7 months, I will wait however long it takes to be matched with OUR son.

Here are some pictures we received with Grayson's referral! What a wonderful time that was!

Long time, no blog

With the busy week of Thanksgiving and starting bible study as a leader, I haven't posted in quite some time! Last Wednesday marked 14 weeks of waiting...this Wednesday makes 15. Wow, where has the time gone? With the holidays in full swing I have been thinking more and more about Abram. I continue to be somewhat tortured by questions of his well-being. We pray every night at dinner that God is keeping him safe. Even Aaron, who doesn't typically feel the adoption is real until he has a picture in hand, has been faithfully praying for Abram's safety.

It has really helped the wait go much smoother this time by focusing on the fact that this may be the last year I do this or that with just Grayson. The last Christmas we only have one child to shop for, the last time I do Christmas shopping with just one kid in the stroller, the last time I brave the cold and only have to be outside long enough to buckle one kid in his carseat, and the list goes on and on!

Here are a couple of pictures of our tree and Grayson in front of it! I can't believe Christmas is soooo close!