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!