When Waiting Gets Hard....

My earliest childhood memories include Cabbage Patch dolls and a white wooden cradle. I feel like I’ve been waiting to be a mom since I was about 5-years-old.



Last night my friend Kathleen sent me the most recent update about Ethiopian Adoptions posted by the State Department.


The State Department is saying that significant delays remain likely for cases presented to Ethiopia's Ministry of Women, Children and Youth Affairs after March 8, 2011. The release says “Prospective adoptive parents who did not reach the court summons stage before March 8, 2011, should expect significant delays in the progression of their paperwork through the Government of Ethiopia.”


I was reading one blog that said it’s possible that it could take up to a year between referral and court date. I can’t even imagine that scenario! I have been pretty strong up until this point – trusting God, knowing that He has called us to Ethiopia. I still trust Him and still believe our family will include Ethiopia babies, but last night I cracked. I lay in bed crying at the thought of how long our wait could actually be. Will it be a year from now, two? I know we are walking the path God has for us, but it seems like we are NEVER going to bring our babies home.


Even though the wait is long (and seems to be getting longer) I will cling to Jesus! There is no doubt in my mind that Ethiopia is where we are supposed to adopt from. God has allowed me to fall head over heels in love with babies that I have never seen – the thought of not bringing them home literally makes me sick to my stomach. I would be devastated if we weren’t able to adopt the children that God has called us to adopt.


But that’s the thing. God has called us to this and He WILL make a way! We still have such a peace about the journey we are on. Despite what the Ethiopian government decides to do, God is ultimately in control. He can move mountains on our behalf and on behalf of all the other families waiting to bring their children home.


I am reminded of Isaiah 43:2. When we are afraid, uncertain and not sure what we are up against, we can remember that God is in control.


“When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”


I am currently doing a Bible study all about waiting. I think I am going to need it now more than ever as our timeline seems to be getting longer and longer. In the study we are looking at the lives of Joseph, David and Jesus. They all faced LONG waits before God fulfilled His plans for them but they all had hope that God would come through for them even though it was hard to wait.


Something written in the Bible Study leaped off the page: “We need to remember that even our biggest problems are under God’s authority.” Praise Jesus! God is not surprised by these changes in the Ethiopian Adoption rules. He can move mountains because He is God. As I was flipping through Isaiah to find the above verse, I stumbled across this “Stop trusting in man, who has but a breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?” I am not going to put my trust or hope in the Ethiopian government, our adoption agency or anything other than God!


As I wait – whether it’s a year or two or three – to have children, I know that God has eternal purposes for my wait. I will remember what my Bible study says, “God builds into us during the wait. God uses our waiting to work in us, to build us to our greatest potential.”


I will choose to believe and cling to Psalm 57: “I call to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me. My heart is confident, God, my heart is confident. I will sing; I will sing praises.”