In and Out

Life.

is

BEAUTIFUL.

Thank you JESS FLYNN for the photos!

I'm so lucky to have this for Finn.  Such a cool memory, carrying him for all those months.  This picture was taken PAST 40 weeks...and the other photo was taken when he was a little more than a week old.

 I wish that I had this for Eli.  Things are so different in the context of adoption.  You hope and you dream and you pray, but it is not tangible.  It involves a ton of waiting and paperwork. A little bit of confusing self modification and evaluation, as people come and evaluate your home and your life.  Adoption involves a TON of faith.  You basically commit to doing it...and then realize there will be no reward that is visible for quite some time.  I am not saying I am perfect at this, but I am truly trying to wait in faith.
I have friends that tried to begin the foster care process as we began our adoption.  They still haven't received a child!  Talk about waiting in faith...everyone assumes doing things deomestically, things will be quicker...
I have been really getting impatient (see, I'm so good at waiting in faith...) since I had Finn.
I needed something tangible.  So Finn and I got on a plane to Kentucky.  My six week old baby and I had to figured out how to do this flight on our own bc Brandon had to work this coming week (it was successful, despite nursing on this prop plane with my baby's feet in my seat mate's lap).  Saturday I went to a reunion for families that have adopted or are in process of adopting through Arise for Children/Lifeline Adoption Agency.  I was filled with a room full of people that love the Lord and have a heart for adoption.  These people have a heart for orphan care.  So many people in this room had already adopted, mostly from Ethiopia.
The colors of people in this room...it was a beautiful room that looked like the kingdom of God.  It was full of different cultures, ethnicities and families.  A single mom, adopting her second child from Ethiopia, a family adopting two ethiopian siblings to add to their four biological children, a sweet friend who just brought home their little boy eight months ago.. who turned two this weekend...

As we walk through the adoption journey, I rejoice as we wait.
Knowing that the Lord's timing is perfect.

We have been waiting for our referral for {SIX MONTHS}.
I am trying to be patient.
The wait was supposed to be 3-6 months.  I thought it was when we sent our dossier {March} that the time started.
But the time didn't start until it arrived in Ethiopia {May}.
Dang it!
November marks 6 months.
But we had to update our homestudy to reflect our new child.
So we wait.
But we have a beautiful distraction as we wait.
Sweet Finn.
As I wrote that, I almost wrote "sweet briar".
I suppose that is appropriate.
As I remember him each day, I think of his two big brothers...
the one that lives here and the one in Africa.
And I think just how lucky we are!