FINALLY!

Four years. It’s amazing what can happen in Four years. That’s how long this blog has been going and unfortunately that’s how long we have been waiting on this adoption. I have watched countless friends get married and have their babies. Watched those babies turn from completely dependent bundles of cooing, drooling, pooping, sweetness; To strikingly independent, walking, talking, potty trained pre-schoolers. Our son has almost been with us for FOUR years. That’s an even crazier thought! He came to us rather shy and timid, still in diapers and now he is crazy out going, smart, fantastic at nearly every sport he tries, and he is finishing up Kindergarten! Time flies as a parent. I see many of my friends nearing the end of their family making years, and yet the first vision for starting our family still hasn’t come to fruition. Four years can feel like an awful short time, but it can also feel like an eternity. This adoption journey is not typical. Nothing about our process has gone the way we envisioned, nor has it been in any way easy or clear-cut. We have watched many families start and complete their adoptions within their predicted time frames. Some of those are already working on their second adoption. We have struggled in the last Four years, with our stability in times of sickness, with our dashed hopes and dreams, with our seemingly unanswered prayers, and sometimes even with our faith. Most adoption stories don’t sound or look like ours, but from the start I am certain it never was supposed too. I recently re-visited my very first blog post Four years ago in 2012, and from the very beginning, it was evident that our story was going to be different. We started out as naive newly weds who just wanted to start being a change in the world. But, what no one tells you is that when you say “Yes” to God and “Yes” to HIS plans no matter what, your expectations, your dreams, your goals, your desires, and most importantly your plans take a back seat to HIS. But the amazing thing is that God doesn’t call the equipped, he equips those whom he calls. We were not ready then for what He had in store for us. We needed to be broken and rebuilt, made stronger and wiser, to see what God sees in the orphan crisis, and equipped to be that change we said we wanted to be. That’s how people can start making changes in the their world, even if the changes only occur in one little person’s world. Four years... that’s how long it took. It could not have happened anytime before. It happened perfectly in His timing, because this is after all His story. And now looking back, we see that nothing is coincidental in this plot. There is so much grace and beauty woven intricately into the details of our FOUR-year wait. From our first son's entrance into our lives as a toddler (instead of that healthy African infant we envisioned) to his interest in a little country called China where we transitioned from Ethiopia (that was Jayden's choice)...to our beloved agency and director (whom I now call a true friend; and soon to be fellow adoptive momma), and the advocacy for older children (which I didnt feel ready or willing at first to do but which would later be where God placed whom we needed to see), lost/declined referrals (which helped prepare us for special needs we needed to learn); they all lead us to where and who we needed to be. Now, we can happily say, how thankful we truly are for our countless unanswered prayers, those long arduous waitlists, broken hearts and broken plans. They led us to the right child, in the right country, in the right orphanage, at the right time.

Drum roll please…….(ba-dum ba-dum ba-dum Chah!) we are ecstatic to FINALLY announce that our family will be seeing BLUE again very soon! We are adopting a little Boy from China and he has been well worth the wait! I am not able to share a whole lot on my public blog until our adoption is final. 

                              

I have started a private group on Face book for those who are interested in more details, seeing his cute little pictures, and following our soon to be journey to China. Contact me on Face book if you would like to be added. What I can say is: he loves being out doors and listening to music, he is described as outgoing, loves playing with cars, loves playing with other children and even looks after them in the orphanage. He is the cutest thing you have probably ever seen. He has chubby cheeks, little dimples, and big brown eyes. We are in love, and we are honored to have been chosen as his family. We have decided to name him Jude; in honor of the patron Saint of “the hopeless and despaired” something our journey has felt like these last several years. And finally, his age…He will be almost exactly 4 years old when we bring him home. Beauty in the details…..

Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we could ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to HIM be the glory throughout all generations forever and ever. AMEN!