July 19th - One out of 72

     What do you say to people or blog about when there is seemingly nothing new under the sun to blog about? Once again this past weekend we encountered a vast number of people, this time at the Sheepfair Festival here in Overton. When we run into many who know about our situation there is generally one question that comes up in conversation and it usually arises very quickly. Can you guess what it is? It is 'have you heard anything yet' and the response that we give of no we haven't usually puts a damper on the conversation. In life most things tend to move along at a quick pace whether it is seeking and finding a new job, or deciding to go back to uni and getting involved in the courses, or dating and realizing that he or she is your spouse to be. Of course life does not always move fast though, I know of plenty of people who have been out of work for an age and are still in that status. I've known some who would love to go back to university but can't based on either finance or their situation in life does not warrant that type of commitment. What about the person who seeks a spouse for years and years without this dream becoming reality. Facing a situation that you so desperately would like to see changed but knowing that there is next to nothing you can do to change it is not an easy task. In our case the reality is that we have done all a perspective parent can do, we've done the training, created our profile, been through the rigours of interviews and so on. As I've blogged about in the past we have chosen to adopt, but we cannot adopt a child until we are chosen.
     Does it get tiring answering the same set of questions? Sure it does. This past weekend Rebecca and I were once again reflecting on life, it is good to do that from time to time, and she discovered that this part of our journey is precisely for us as well.

      More than once we've compared ourselves to Abraham and Sarah in the Bible, we didn't leave our land to an unknown land rather one that we knew where we were going. What all we would face in that new land we were quite unclear about, but we did expect a level of safety that Abraham and Sarah probably most certainly did not have. One of the more important or well known facts of their lives was their hearing of God that Abraham would be a father to a nation, a father to the number of stars in the skies. Being childless meant that this prophecy was quite impossible, but alas the Lord had other plans in place. After a waiting period of some 24 years Abraham and Sarah did have a child, well past the time when she should have been able to give birth. Their faith was no doubt tested and grown through this extended waiting period, now we have not been waiting for nearly that long. In fact since being approved it has been about 4 months while they waited 288 months so we've put in 1/72 of the amount of time that they waited. I suppose in that perspective we have much faith to grow. It is true that the best things in life are usually worth waiting for.

July 3rd - The Newsroom and a stopwatch

     It has been a little while since last blogging about our adoption process and a few excuses could be made for this lack of updating on our journey. We could say because we are busy so it has been really hard to find time to write, or that our computer has been in the shop now for 16 days, but these while true are not the real reason. The other night we watched a brand new TV show called 'Newsroom' (Aaron Sorkin's new show, it is fabulous you must check it out) and one of the main points was delivering of the news in a bright accurate, interesting and attention grabbing manner.

I think that is quite possible when dealing with headliners such as an earthquake, hostage situation, important election, kidnapping etc... but it is that feasible when there does not seem to be any news to bring. It's a bit like Seinfeld the show about nothing that was ultimately about relationship, reality of daily life and connected with so many because it wasn't big story after big story. That is the way that our adoption process has been going, not really any news to report, rather it is the reality of everyday life whether involved in a church focused activity, cutting the hedges, making dinner, playing LOTR Risk or playing the guitar. So while we have this huge aspect of our lives bubbling away in the background there is life being lived in the foreground.

     In talking the other day I said it was like adoption was on our hearts but not on our minds. It's hard to gauge how true this actually is. Worry starts to creep in and the thoughts of 'is this for real' 'will we actually be chosen as parents' invade the mind and the resting place of waiting for His timing start to be eroded with our own stopwatch. It is accurate to say that adoption is in our hearts, we long for this to happen in our lives and for friends that we know who are going through the same type of processes to see their dreams realized through adoption. So going back to the news metaphor there really isn't any, doesn't make for the most excitng blog in the world does it? We continue to wait much like we had in previous months, although now maybe more seasoned and measured in our waiting. The old saying good things come to those who wait is accurate, and usually the waiting is an undisclosed amount of time.
     If you are told you'll have to wait for 20 minutes until the table is ready in the restaurant you simply put your name in and either carry on shopping or chatting waiting for the call. If you go up the hostess and she would say your wait would be  5 1/2 hours nary would there be many who stay at that establishment especially if there were others available. But what if that were the only option (I know not an accurate representation of much of the world around us) and there were no other ways to get a meal 5 1/2 hours wouldn't seem so crazy amount of time to wait. We have been told to wait until chosen, whether that is 20 minutes or 5 1/2 hours we don't know, but we do know that having a little life in our care is worth the wait. Much like the Newsroom when there is breaking news we'll be there for you, but until that point we'll carry on delivering the news of waiting and our thoughts/feelings about this amazing journey which we've embarked upon.