More Waiting

Let me begin this post be acknowledging how very blessed we are.  God is faithful.  When I look back at our journey throughout the life of our family I am amazed at how God has given us special gifts and wonderful surprises along the way. I am humbled and thankful to the God who lavishes good gifts on His children.  I am thankful for each child that He has blessed Mark and I with.  They are treasures!

So that is the framework from which I digress....but to which I will return at the end of this verbal wandering.   As you know, we have been waiting on our second little ET boy for over two years. There is no adequate way to express the yearning of a mother/father for their child to someone who is looking on with outside eyes only.  Those of you who have stepped into the journey with us (we would probably not emotionally survive without you!), you know.  You ask about how we are doing...and you KNOW the fine line we walk between solid faith in God's timing and the yearning to have our boy home with his family.

So this is my latest pondering.  Perhaps it will be helpful to those of you who find yourself at this place in your own adoption journey.  Or perhaps as you are waiting for something else in your life.   Here's the deal.  Our paperwork has been on various desks since about June.  We received our referral on Septmeber 15th.  A day of joy and a day that often marks the beginning of a path with fairly predicatable benchmarks.   However, this has not been our case.  As we have watched other families travel to ET to court and return home, then go back to ET to bring their child home.( Families that at some stages we were tracking with by the way), our papers continue to sit.  So what is our response to this? We have no choice to believe that God has that paperwork sitting for a reason we cannot know and cannot fathom.  No amount of praying (begging at times) can move the hand of God against His perfect will.  So do we rant? (sometimes) do we quit praying? (no).  We have to choose Him.  We have to believe that God is doing a work in and through our boy there that He is has not completed yet AND a work in and through us that He has not yet completed.  It is VERY hard.  It is hard to open up email and not have any word.  It is hard to not check email.  But when I think I can stand it no longer He always brings a sweet reminder that He is with us IN the journey.  Last night I was reading in Ephesians.  There was a side note that took me to Psalm 68.  Not verses 5 and 6 by the way, but years before I had underlined those verses.  So what do they say?  God is a Father to the fatherless...and He sets the lonely in families.  Comfort for this mama's heart to be reminded that He is with our sweet boy.  He loves him more than we can fathom.  And He is about the buisness of setting the lonely in families.  We do believe that this will be true for him too.

We are soooo grateful for all that God has already given us.  Our cups overflow.  "The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places." (Ps 16).  We do not forget or make light of this at all even as we yearn for brother to come home.  Please join us in praying for his continued care and for our family as we wait.  May we find joy even in this part of the journey.  May we encourage those of you along the way.

BTWs..since you are praying anyway...the in country director was in a bad car accident many months ago and is still recovering.  Please pray that the Lord would heal her and restore her strength.  Also, pray for those who hold the future of international adoption in their hands that they would have hearts softened to the beauty and the need of setting these children in families.

Thank you for walking with us.  Blessing to you.

Love,
Mark and Julie
Julianna, Jacob, Elizabeth, Lydia, Samuel