The Blessings of the Wait
My friend recently sent me a blog of entitled "the weight of the wait". And even though we are only a few month into our official wait, we have been dreaming of adopting for years and heard the specific call to move ahead in January of 2008. There are definitly days when the wait seems to hard to bear and too long. Every night when I go to bed I kiss my little boys and pray over them while they sleep. Then as I close there door and turn away my eyes are drawn to the dark, empty nursery. My heart grows heavy and I long for my little girl to be sleeping in that crib....I long for the day when I get to pray over her as well. But there are also so many blessings during the wait. We are sure that God is using this time to prepare us for the journey ahead.
We just received our long awaited envelope from immigration. I was so excited to open it up. I tore open the envelope and as I began to read the words my heart went from sheer joy to thinking why? and here we go again. They are asking for more documentation from the courts and if we do not get it to them within 30 days our "application will be terminated for abandonement". So we are in prayer that this documentation will come quickly and trusting that God will provide for us once again. God is once again using a trial with this adoption to deepen our faith and trust in God alone. We are dependant only on Him and trust totally in His Sovereignty!! He alone can give joy in the midst of trial and is making us stronger for the road ahead.
We have prayed since last summer that God would give us some Ethiopian friends. At the beginning of this adoption process God gave me the verse from Ephesians 3: 20 "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" Tonight I am overwhelmed with emotion and thankfulness to God for His answer to this prayer, His answer that is immeasurably more than we could have imagined! Our oldest son met a boy at his preschool whose family is from Ethiopia. Over the past few months we have developed a friendship with them. They are an amazing family and such a blessing to us! Not only are they from Ethiopia and have young children, but they also are followers of Jesus. My dear friends love us and they are so excited about our adoption. What a blessing for our daughter that we are now connected with other Ethiopians who will be godly role models for her. Today we were able to attend their Ethiopian church in Silver Spring, MD. What an amazing experience!!! The church was packed full of beautiful peopel worshipping God. It was quite the party as they danced and sang for the Lord. And although we couldn't understand the words, we could understand the work of the Holy Spirit and the joy that they were expressing. Afterwards we were introduced to many other Ethiopian brothers and sisters and were invited to fellowship in one of their homes. They made delicious Ethiopian food for us, including our favorites of ayib and doro wat. And this time they didn't hold back on the spice - Yummy!! Our kids have learned how to eat injera. Our host said that they are Ethiopian on the inside. What a great time of fellowship. The kids all played together and we heard all kinds of stories about Ethiopia and encouragment from the Bible. We all prayed together and made plans to see one another again. I told our host that I had prayed to meet some Ethiopian friends and he commented that sometimes God gives us more than we asked for. He said this with some humor, but it brought so much joy to my heart because of the verse God had give our family. Kevin and I could have never imagined this day. It is beyond what we thought and we are rejoicing in God's immeasurable blessings. He is truly using the wait time to build a foundation for the road ahead. We look forward with anticipation for what will come next. As our host said, "we are all the same in Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter language, color or religion...in Jesus Christ we are family." Amen!!!
We just received our long awaited envelope from immigration. I was so excited to open it up. I tore open the envelope and as I began to read the words my heart went from sheer joy to thinking why? and here we go again. They are asking for more documentation from the courts and if we do not get it to them within 30 days our "application will be terminated for abandonement". So we are in prayer that this documentation will come quickly and trusting that God will provide for us once again. God is once again using a trial with this adoption to deepen our faith and trust in God alone. We are dependant only on Him and trust totally in His Sovereignty!! He alone can give joy in the midst of trial and is making us stronger for the road ahead.
We have prayed since last summer that God would give us some Ethiopian friends. At the beginning of this adoption process God gave me the verse from Ephesians 3: 20 "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen" Tonight I am overwhelmed with emotion and thankfulness to God for His answer to this prayer, His answer that is immeasurably more than we could have imagined! Our oldest son met a boy at his preschool whose family is from Ethiopia. Over the past few months we have developed a friendship with them. They are an amazing family and such a blessing to us! Not only are they from Ethiopia and have young children, but they also are followers of Jesus. My dear friends love us and they are so excited about our adoption. What a blessing for our daughter that we are now connected with other Ethiopians who will be godly role models for her. Today we were able to attend their Ethiopian church in Silver Spring, MD. What an amazing experience!!! The church was packed full of beautiful peopel worshipping God. It was quite the party as they danced and sang for the Lord. And although we couldn't understand the words, we could understand the work of the Holy Spirit and the joy that they were expressing. Afterwards we were introduced to many other Ethiopian brothers and sisters and were invited to fellowship in one of their homes. They made delicious Ethiopian food for us, including our favorites of ayib and doro wat. And this time they didn't hold back on the spice - Yummy!! Our kids have learned how to eat injera. Our host said that they are Ethiopian on the inside. What a great time of fellowship. The kids all played together and we heard all kinds of stories about Ethiopia and encouragment from the Bible. We all prayed together and made plans to see one another again. I told our host that I had prayed to meet some Ethiopian friends and he commented that sometimes God gives us more than we asked for. He said this with some humor, but it brought so much joy to my heart because of the verse God had give our family. Kevin and I could have never imagined this day. It is beyond what we thought and we are rejoicing in God's immeasurable blessings. He is truly using the wait time to build a foundation for the road ahead. We look forward with anticipation for what will come next. As our host said, "we are all the same in Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter language, color or religion...in Jesus Christ we are family." Amen!!!
That's so wonderful!! What a blessing!!!
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