Welp.
We skipped right on past 9 months of waiting and we're in month 11.
I have officially passed my due date. {Friends who have been pregnant, you KNOW the weight behind those words}. Being "paper pregnant" has a LOT of similarities.} That's another post.
Because you know, I have have it figured out and know EXACTLY when this African princess will be born into our lives.
In the words of the early 90's *SIKE*.
I have no.clue.
Our summer was pretty eventful with lots of bike riding, trips to Chehaw, a trip to the ER, playing in the rain, birthday's, the beach, ice-cream, movies and spur of the moment road trips, my #2 going to big church for the first time, Kari Jobe concert, swimming, 4th of July, PRECIOUS outfits showing up in the mail for her, bags of super cute clothes being brought over, her side of the room being prepared. It actually flew by very quickly.
But there was one conversation that happened about once a week....
Roger: We bought that push mower for Cameron to cut the grass. Why do you keep cutting it?
Me: Because I can see it & I have a longing to cut the grass.
I'm a visual person.
I like to read books with pictures.
I like to take pictures.
I like to see things.
Its very obvious when you cut the grass that something is happening. And with all the rain we had there was a LOT to see because it just kept growing and growing and growing.
When we built our house (don't worry it's not a huge fancy thing like you prob just imagined) we had to cut as many corners as we could to afford it and along with crown molding went landscaping. Nothing was planted. Not a single bush or square of grass was laid out. So we spent a LOT of time praying for grass.
A former neighbor even helped up plant some seeds and we watered and watered and watered. We were the neighbors flipping their porch lights on & off in the odd hours of the night moving sprinklers around in desperation to wake up one morning and see tiny little green sprigs popping up through the dirt.
We seeded the back but not the front.... this picture my friends is of the FRONT yard.
Only Jesus made that grass grow.
So in my longing to mow the grass I thanked Him with every.single.row. I made in that yard. Sometimes backing up and re-mowing over an area because it was SO THICK!
Thanking Him for HEARING our prayers for grass for ANSWERING these prayers and for GIVING us grass and for going over and beyond and giving us THICK PRETTY GREEN grass. He is faithful in the big and the small my friends. Never think anything you are praying for is trivial and ALWAYS give Him the glory when He answers!
This act of mowing the grass was soothing to my soul & was the perfect visual of something for me to see in this waiting season.
Such a reminder that He is HEARING our prayers and that He will ANSWER our prayers and that He will go over & beyond and give us a BEAUTIFUL daughter that I can WAIT to lay my eyes on!
I just mowed my little heart out y'all. Crying out to the Lord with every row for our Lily. Imagining her sitting on our front porch with side walk chalk as I mowed wondering if next summer she would be here. Lots of praying and rejoicing and thanking was done this Summer in cutting that grass.
Oh 11 months... eleven, as is next month will be a year. A year of waiting.... Honestly I can't believe it. I mean I can but I can't.
While the summer went by quickly I had the opportunity to make lots of new friend via social media.
You know, sometimes social media gets a bad wrap but in the adoption community the Lord.uses.it!! Can I get an amen adoptive mamma's?? And daddy's? (that was for you Todd)
Along with new friends comes lots of knowledge about the adoption process because some of your new friends are further along in their journey.
Here is a MAJOR thing I learned.
While there are MILLIONS of orphans not all of them are adoptable.
So what does THAT mean?
There are laws put into place to protect against illegal adoptions. Go here for more information.
These children have to become adoptable. This process is completed on the Orphanage side.
While we had mounds of paperwork to complete in order for us to adopt, there are LOTS of things that have to happen for Lily for her to become available for adoption.It varies from country to country.
For Ethiopia, part of that process is locating the person who either abandoned her at the orphanage OR the person who found her and brought her to the orphanage. Now listen, I'm not talking driving across town or down the street locating, I'm talking the possibility of her mother traveling, maybe by foot, many miles into the city from a village to bring her to the orphanage bc she knows she will be cared for & fed. I'm talking locating a random person who found her on the street and brought her to the orphanage in a city of MILLIONS. (in 2008 Addis Ababa had a population of 3.385 MILLION people.)
Once this person is found they have to appear in court. The purpose of this to prove that she is a true orphan or is being orphaned. There are many reasons why children are orphaned. In Africa many times it's due to disease, mother dies from HIV & there's no one to care for them, or bc there are too many children for a single mother to care for and she knows that by taking them to the orphanage they will be fed & taken care of and eventually adopted.
If this person can not be located and if found does not appear in court, the process of making her adoptable doesn't continue. *deep breath*long sigh*
Every orphanage I have ever seen has been a little understaffed and over populated by children. Bottles are propped up during feeding time, children are not really played with, lots of time spent in the crib or pack-n-play time because there are simply not enough hands. And I admit the thought of it being the orphanages responsibility to find the time to seek out these people, help them make their court date, get medicals done & simply deem the child ADOPTABLE sounds impossible. But it does happen!
Add in the fact that it's rainy season in Ethiopia and <BAM> that makes everything more difficult. They close court because no one can get to the court house bc the roads are in such horrible condition from the rain. The power goes on and off, the internet is in and out. Think of how we would be affected if it rained this much where we live....
(picture from a FB missionary friends page he posted from the streets of Addis)
And on top of all of this we are currently on hold, again.
There are some licening issues in Ethiopia with our agency. They have told us they are "close" to having it resolved but until it's resolved referrals/adoptions are not happening.
*sigh*
This is what we have been praying this week regarding the licensing issue:
Prepare the way of the Lord,
Make straight in the desert
a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be exalted
And every mountain and hill brought low;
The crooked places shall be made straight
and the rough places smooth;
The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together.
Isaiah 40:3-5
That every obstacle to get this license complete would be removed, every difficult area would be straightened, that the Lord would burden the hearts of these government officials to get this done, that there would be a sense of urgency within, that the Lord would give favor to the agency representative handling this in Ethiopia. And all this so that the glory of the Lord will be revealed for everyone to see.
We are asking Him to do things that only He could do. If we could do them then we would seek the praise and you wouldn't see the power and sovereignty of our God. THIS is why we have walked this adoption so visibly, so you reader would see the Lord and His power. This is His stage, not ours, this is about Him, not us. For the first year we were busy with paperwork, busy fun-raising, busy busy busy and now....there is nothing left to do but wait.
I don't want this waiting season to be wasted. I have had so many intimate moments with the Lord and tried to blog them but y'all, somethings are too imitate to be shared. Our God is so in tune with us. And in the midst of hard and pain and frustration He meets you there and does things that you have a hard time puting into words. He longs for our hurts to be turned towards Him not away from Him. He is waiting to lavish us with His power through the Holy Spirit.
You know that's what He left us right? When He died on the cross and went up to Heaven, He left His Holy Spirit inside of us if you are a Born Again Believer. And He never leaves us. (John 14:16-18)
He empowers us to do things we can't do on our own in our own strength. In our weakness is when His strength is the MOST perfect! (2 Cor 12:9-11) What a perfect place to be, WEAK! Then it's HE gets the glory because it's HIS strength that carries us through & not our own. #howdopeopledoitwithouttheLord
He has such patience with us. I didn't fully surrender my life to Him until my 30's. And He endured with me that long!
Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:16:
But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of His great patience with even the worst of sinners. The others would realize that they, too, can believe in Him and receive eternal life.
We, wretched sinners, are the example of His great patience!
He waited for Noah to build the arc before He flooded the Earth. (1 Pet 3:20) He is slow to anger and rich in love. (Ps 103:8) His patience is not like my patience! I think of my lack of patience at the red light, in the drive through, doing homework with my children, with people; it's so limited & based on my circumstance. His exercise of His power is His patience! And He desires to give us that same power through His Holy Spirit. (Gal 5:22)
His patience with me motivates me to wait patiently for Him through the power of His Holy Spirit.
So you may ask, what does it take so long to adopt?
There are many reasons, finding people, rain, paperwork, red tape & the list goes on and on but oh how His Word & the Holy Spirit provide such strength & POWER as to wait patiently for Him!
And the end result in all of this is yes, a cute little African princess but the PRIZE is knowing Him more, nothing compares!
Everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.
Phil 3:8
A little treat from last night, seeing the African Children's Choir who just *happened* to come through our town on tour.
I'm so thankful for the opportunity I had to go with a team to South Africa last year and I can tell you the moment they opened their mouths the tears started flowing.
Something about hearing another tribe our God created singing praises to Him!!!
And a very personal praise is that the Lord allowed my husband to hear the sounds of these children singing these praises. I can try to tell him all day long how the Lord used it for me but until you hear with your own ears you'll never know. He heard last night and now knows what I've been trying to described for a year now. Same for my best friend.
Thank you Lord. You are so good to me..... #preparation #hearttying
May the things of Earth grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory & grace,
Kim
A few ps's:
-If you have the opportunity to do the Bible Study by Priscilla Shirer called Gideon, I HIGHLY recommend it! Some of this power & patient talk was learned from her study & the Word!
-Always wear a helmet while riding a bike. Hence the "er trip" from our summer shenanigans.
-If it rains on your beach trip, turn around and spend the rest of the day soaking in some good talk time with your BFF poolside. It will not be a wasted trip. I promise!
-Grab your kids and play in the rain for once. You'd be surprised how much fun it is!
-Grab the lawn mower & try mowing the grass. The Lord just might show up :)
