A message to my baby

Dear son or daughter,

I am writing this message to you before I have ever met you.  I do not know your name, how old you are, where you are living right now, or even if you are a girl or a boy.  What I do know is that I am your mommy.  From the very beginning of this journey I have known in my heart that you were waiting for me just as I am waiting for you.  We are already connected.  We are connected by love, and we are connected because, from before the beginning of time, God chose us to be your parents and He chose you to be our child.  From before the beginning of time.  Our family has always been part of God's plan.   The process that is bringing us together is a long one full of unknowns.  We do not know how long we will have to wait to meet you, but we will not give up waiting.  

I want you to know how many of our friends and family members already love you too.  Your grandparents pray for you all the time.  Our friends at Trinity Baptist Church ask about you and pray for your safety while we are apart.   Everyone I work with at John Daniels School knows about you and they ask about you all the time.  The people at America World pray every day for our family and all the other families waiting for their children.  Your father and I think of you every day and we are working hard to get ready to be the best parents we can be for you.  

It is not easy for us to wait for the day you come home.  I know it's not easy for you either.  I hope that you know in your heart (the way I know in my heart) that someday we will be together.  And when that day comes, we will be a family.  A family is a beautiful thing--we will hold each other in both joy and sorrow, we will stand by each other in proud and frightening times, we will be together when we are having fun and when we are worried, we will learn from each other, we will explore the world together and change the world together, we will always know who to go to when we need to feel safe.  Because we are a family.

If I could come get you right now, I would do it.  But we must wait.  And though we sometimes feel weak during the waiting time, God is using this time to make us strong, to make our family strong--in our weakness he is strong.  

 7To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

With love,

Mommy

John Piper on Adoption (Ephesians 1)

www.desiringgod.org/blog/1113_adoption_is_greater_than_the_universe/

AWAA Visit

This weekend we took a wonderful trip to Washington DC together.  James earned a free night's stay at a Hyatt hotel because of all his travels for work, so we booked a night at thePark Hyatt, DC and packed our bags for an adventure together.  It turns out that our weekend away coincided with a sort of anniversary--exactly 10 years ago, our love story began... in Washington DC.  Kim went along with James, his family and and his brother's boy scout troop to our nation's capital.  We looked at museums and began a relationship that continues to bring us joy and adventure every day.  

This time around, we went to museums, monuments, memorials, and visited with some old Trinity friends, the Shumans.  We also took some time to visit America World's main office in McLean, VA.  We met with the Latin America Program Coordinator and had a wonderful talk that confirmed for us that we are in good hands.  We didn't learn any new information about the status of our adoption, but we were encouraged by the loving spirit of the AWAA staff, and the passion with which they are working on behalf of our family and many others.  

More to come about the specifics of our conversation.

  

Here is us at the Washington Monument

These are the flags outside of the Organization of American States.  First in line is El Salvador.

9 months

April 9th marks 9 months since we submitted our paperwork to El Salvador.  I remember holding that big FedEx box in my hands feeling as though I was somehow holding our child.  We felt like parents at that moment and had all the hopes and dreams that parents have the moment they discover they are expecting a child.  

God has been more than faithful to us during the past nine months and we are thankful for the ways He continues to give us peace and hope and patience.  We are still 100% confident about our choice to adopt and our decision to work with AWAA in their El Salvador program.  We are still  positive that our child awaits us in El Salvador and that God is providing everything that he/she needs just as he prepares us and provides for our needs with blessings that amaze us each day.  We are so thankful for the ways we are able to grow as a couple as we prepare to be parents to the unique child God has chosen for us.

Nine months.  Seems significant.