Looking Back Over the Year…

Today January 18, 2012, marks 1 year or 52 weeks or 365 days or 8,760 hours or 525,600 minutes or 31,536,000 seconds of time since we started this adoption process. (and 6 months on the official wait list!) This period of time included filling out applications, fingerprinting, talking to a social worker, retrieving every important personal document we own, writing letters, completing online classes, going to LA to have documents sealed, taking passport photos, sending information to Texas and Washington DC and the list goes on.  
 
This lengthy time also included wonderful fundraising events such as hiking through all parts of beautiful sunny California or bootcamp/pilates workouts that inspired people to reach a new level of fitness abilities.  More importantly, these events gave a people a chance to connect to others and meet people in all walks of life.  I know for a fact that by spending a couple extra hours on Saturdays with all of our supporters, I have been shaped in a way I simply can’t explain. It is so wonderful, and it has brought me so much refreshment during the drought!
 
The last year has also been filled with literally owning a T-shirt shop in my car… you laugh but it’s true.  I have carried around boxes and boxes of T-shirts, tank tops and sweatshirts for several months, delighted in the interest of hundreds of you who not only bought them but wear them!  There is not a fitness class I teach where I go and don’t see our apparel catching my eye.  Beautiful shirts that remind me one day there will be 2 less orphans in this world, and we will be that family walking hand in hand under the trees defending the cause of orphans.
 
But a majority of this last year has simply been waiting… and waiting some more.  “Have you heard anything about the babies?” I frequently get asked in the hallways of work or over the phone from our friends.  “No,” I respond, “But maybe any day now.”  And during this waiting time, I find myself busy, but calm.  Anxious, but peaceful. Ready, but patient.  I find myself going on long walks with my dogs in the morning and simply praying for our little ones, asking God to protect them and hold them while I can’t.  I ask him to provide just the perfect children to blend in to our family.  I pray for their health, ability to flourish, and a desire to do the right thing as they grow.  Above all, I pray that they will seek the Lord with all their heart for nothing else really matters.
 
So today, January 18 is a very special day as we look back on all God has brought us through and how so many of you have blessed us greatly.  And we will march on, one second, one minute, one hour and one day at a time until we meet our babes.