Waiting...

The week of Thanksgiving, we received the good news that our Home Study, the first major portion of our adoption journey, was completed – Thanks be to God! Over the course of the 5 months it took to complete it, there were many moments when it seemed as the though we would never be able to cross-off each document and task on the checklist. Thanks to Kameron’s diligent organization and many professionals and agencies who assisted us with paperwork, we have sent our Immigration paperwork off for approval and are compiling our dossier to send to Ethiopia.

So, now with the Home Study in our hands, a new, shorter and less complicated list of requirements to check off, with a major leg of the journey in the rearview and with renewed gratitude in our hearts, we move into the second major phase: waiting.

Waiting is difficult. We have been looking forward to welcoming our new child into our family since we began praying about this possibility last year. But the waiting will persist. The average wait time from submission of our dossier to Ethiopia to a referral for a child: 18 months. We are longing for this new, youngest member of our family to become a permanent member of our family. We look forward to when the number of faces you can count on our Christmas card will be five rather than four. For now, we simply imagine and pray for a face that may or may not have been born yet. We are forced into waiting, yearning, longing.

I am not used to waiting. In an age of instant gratification, when food passes to us through a window, 2 minutes after ordering, when we have limitless information a finger swipe across a laminated screen away, and a buffet of entertainment awaits us in our living rooms or around the corner, I am reminded that things worth loving and living for cannot be rushed. A birth, a wedding day, a graduation, a reunion, retirement, an embrace - the best experiences in this gift of life demand that we wait.

Waiting might be the hardest part. Especially when the waiting is without visible, measurable progress. It is one thing to have a “to-do” list of requirements to champion, one task at a time. It is another to wait in the stillness, the wondering and the silence of possibility – waiting for a phone call announcing the good news of great joy to us, that our child will finally join our family.

As a family, during this Advent season, we not only remember Jesus’ birth 2,000 years ago, and look forward with eager anticipation for Christ’s return, when all creation will be renewed and peace and fulfillment will reign. For the first time in my life, even if in a very small way, I think we can identify with the longing of Israel, through Mary and Joseph’s experience, for the Child to come.

We deeply desire to show God’s love to one of His own by making him or her one of our own. Please pray for all five us during this journey.

In God’s Grace,

Nathan, Kameron, J. Henry, Amelia (and Baby #3!)