We are officially on the wait list at number 73!!! We have waited long and worked hard for this day to arrive and it is finally here! So now we breath. Now we wait.
This number essentially means there are 72 other families ahead of us waiting for their referral. Each month our number should change. We will go down the wait list as other families receive their referrals. We will keep you updated each month as we move closer to number one!
What happens when we get to front of the line? We will then receive our referrals. We will be sent the names, pictures, and stories of the two children our adoption agency has matched to our family. Once we officially accept those referrals we will be off of the wait list and moving forward to bring those 2 specific children home!
We are in the Advent season. I have been daily reflecting on the mystery and glory of God coming to earth. Of the fact that he did. Marveling at the powerful way that he came. But mostly praising him for all that is means for me- for us- for this world.
HE CAME.
He promised his people that he would and they WAITED.
They HOPED.
They LONGED for HIS COMING.
And- HE CAME.
I am pausing this December to remember his coming. I am quieting my soul to listening for what he wants me to know about His first coming and what he wants me to know as I wait for his return. We are pausing in a season of waiting and anticipation. How fitting that we should be placed on our agencies wait list now. We wait. We hope. We anticipate these little children coming. As I remember the Child who came.
Abraham and Sarah waited for a child. They waited long for the promise of God to be fulfilled. I imagine their hearts ached and I imagine Sarah lost hope. But "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise…" (2 Peter 3:9)
He fulfilled his promise with a child. Isaac- meaning "he laughs". He filled their longings and proved himself faithful. He filled them with joy after the hard of the waiting.
And when Jesus- The Child- came, the earth was filled with this joy- all of our longings were satisfied and God indeed proved himself faithful.
Ann Voskamp puts it this way:
"we who were barren now graced with the Child who lets us laugh with relief for all eternity. There is nothing left to want. There is nothing left to fear."
Because this Child came in the stillness of the night in the little town of Bethlehem I can "laugh with relief for all eternity".
As we wait for our little ones from Ethiopia we remember that "God is not slow in keeping his promise…" We wait in hope and in anticipation. We quiet our hearts and focus on the Child who has made all things new, the Child who brings hope to the world, the Child who came after the wait.
