Well… this is my first time actually writing a post for the blog. Drew is much better at wording things, but today i will just speak to you from my heart.
This morning Drew and I went to the U.S. Immigration office to get our fingerprints done. They first ask us to stand loose, whatever that means :), as to not mess up their finger print design they are about to create. Then they proceed to smush our fingers onto this scanner lookin’ thing, and that’s where the magic happens. Over and over again, the women moved our fingers from left to right in effort to carefully view her artwork and be sure that every line in our little fingers could be viewed. Its pretty cool that no two people have the same design right? By the way… what every happened to ink? I was totally expecting to be washing my fingers all day trying to get all the ink between the crevices of my finger tips. But I digress…. These fingerprints were a monumental moment for us. This was the last of all of our paperwork that needed to be completed. After going through police checks, reference letters, medical clearances, case work evaluations, soggy returned applications and more, we are finally at the home stretch. Very soon we will be sending our paperwork to Ethiopia and be placed on the official “waiting list”.

Today I am contemplating what waiting is…

“they” say that the waiting is the hard part. Its the time when there is nothing we can do anymore except be patient. We just wait until they surprise attack us with a phone call and say, “book a fight- your child is waiting for you”! The average wait right now is about 10.5 months, so we hear. It is always changing, so we are trying not to expect any sort of time frame, other than when God wants our child to come home, then they will come home. While the thought of waiting absolutely frustrates me, I know there is benefit in the waiting. Some super exciting news is that our sweet friends Jim and Emily who are adopting as well, just received a referral last Friday!!! (A referral is when your agency calls to let you know that they have matched you with a child! They send you as much information as they have on the child and you can go visit them for the first time). So, our friends are going to be picking up their 21 month old little boy from Ethiopia!!! We could’nt be any happier for them. This waiting process is not for the “faint of heart” so we hear. Jim and Emily have walked this road with faith and frustration and commitment and are seeing now the beauty of waiting. They are an example to us and an encouragement as we continue on in this process.
I can only trust as we start this waiting period. Trust that we are doing the right thing. Trust that we aren’t alone. Trust that there is a child out their waiting for us as well. I trust that God is with us in this, and he is guiding us even as we wait. Today I cant help but be thankful to be Drew’s wife. He is the most patient and thought out man I know, and God knows I need him as a reminder of how waiting can be a reward in itself. I would love to have a child in our arms tomorrow, but we need this process of “wait”. We are being prepared for something greater than we could ever imagine.

If you want to check out Jim and Emily’s blog, CLICK HERE.   They just posted about their little boy 🙂