Restless...Shopping
Restless. Or maybe antsy would be a better word. We're almost at the end of this adoption road, at least the road that leads to finally having her in our arms, in our family forever. The days pass quickly, yet slowly. I find myself looking at the date and counting down the days till the 19th. Then I'll be counting down the days till we travel. Illinois is requiring yet more paperwork before they give us permission to travel. Lord, I pray you will bring that paperwork through the system quickly after we pass court. We wait and pray and live and wonder.
Adoption is a long, winding road. My sweet husband and I have come a long way since sitting next to each other at a restaurant after playing 9 holes of golf, celebrating my birthday, and then discussing all the reasons why we should or should not adopt. Over a huge plate of mediocre nachos, we volleyed those reasons back and forth. Age. The Boys. Obedience to God. What If. Regret. Longing. Relentless thoughts of orphans. Cost. What will be the cost? We walked away from that restaurant forever changed.
Here we are, 7 1/2 months later, the expectant parents of a beautiful 6-month-old baby girl born in northern Ethiopia, now living in an orphanage in Mekele. Wow....
Days Later:
We received an e-mail yesterday that all is ready for court on Monday. This past week has flown by. On my way to get a freezer at Sears yesterday, I ended up spending three hours in two stores looking at baby things. I walked out of the first store with nothing. I went into the second store, Nordstrom Rack, with the purpose of buying some summer shorts for the boys. It took me over an hour to make it to the boys' section because they make you walk through the baby section first. They had so much!!!! So many beautiful little outfits and dresses and little onesies with cute leggings. Did they always have all this stuff? I've never noticed. I loaded up. Shamelessly. I even bought a container that nestles 4 smaller containers for little meals or snacks, complete with a green spoon. Why I bought this I have no idea. It seemed necessary at the time. Maybe it will be necessary. I don't remember having such things with the boys. Maybe I did. It's been a looonnnggg time. The freezer is still at the store; never made it there.
Father, I am very grateful (understatement) for your sacrifice on the cross for me, for the world. The cost was unfathomable. I can't comprehend what it must have been like for Jesus to experience and become shame, nakedness, sin, death, disease and misery, stripped of His garments...for us, so that we would be clothed in His righteousness and intimately brought into relationship, deep and rich and lovely, with You. You knew it was worth the cost. We were worth the cost. I can't wait to clothe my little girl in beautiful things, but when she is clothed in the fine linen, bright and clean (Rev. 19:7-8) of your righteousness, that will be the best of all.
"Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Revelation 3:17-18
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. II Corinthians 8:9
Adoption is a long, winding road. My sweet husband and I have come a long way since sitting next to each other at a restaurant after playing 9 holes of golf, celebrating my birthday, and then discussing all the reasons why we should or should not adopt. Over a huge plate of mediocre nachos, we volleyed those reasons back and forth. Age. The Boys. Obedience to God. What If. Regret. Longing. Relentless thoughts of orphans. Cost. What will be the cost? We walked away from that restaurant forever changed.
Here we are, 7 1/2 months later, the expectant parents of a beautiful 6-month-old baby girl born in northern Ethiopia, now living in an orphanage in Mekele. Wow....
Days Later:
We received an e-mail yesterday that all is ready for court on Monday. This past week has flown by. On my way to get a freezer at Sears yesterday, I ended up spending three hours in two stores looking at baby things. I walked out of the first store with nothing. I went into the second store, Nordstrom Rack, with the purpose of buying some summer shorts for the boys. It took me over an hour to make it to the boys' section because they make you walk through the baby section first. They had so much!!!! So many beautiful little outfits and dresses and little onesies with cute leggings. Did they always have all this stuff? I've never noticed. I loaded up. Shamelessly. I even bought a container that nestles 4 smaller containers for little meals or snacks, complete with a green spoon. Why I bought this I have no idea. It seemed necessary at the time. Maybe it will be necessary. I don't remember having such things with the boys. Maybe I did. It's been a looonnnggg time. The freezer is still at the store; never made it there.
Father, I am very grateful (understatement) for your sacrifice on the cross for me, for the world. The cost was unfathomable. I can't comprehend what it must have been like for Jesus to experience and become shame, nakedness, sin, death, disease and misery, stripped of His garments...for us, so that we would be clothed in His righteousness and intimately brought into relationship, deep and rich and lovely, with You. You knew it was worth the cost. We were worth the cost. I can't wait to clothe my little girl in beautiful things, but when she is clothed in the fine linen, bright and clean (Rev. 19:7-8) of your righteousness, that will be the best of all.
"Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing, and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Revelation 3:17-18
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. II Corinthians 8:9
I will rejoice greatly in the Lord,
My soul will exult in my God;
For He has clothed me with garments of salvation,
He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness,
As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland,
And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
Isaiah 61:10
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