The Waiting Game

Sometimes I feel the waiting game is one of the hardest parts of the adoption process. I mean fundraising - you can work harder, country problems - make a few more phone calls, but waiting....what can be done about waiting? I am reading a really good book right now called "When the Heart Waits" by Sue Monk Kidd. Its an amazing book with great analogies, ideas, and I find it really does help with all the waiting. But there are still days. Days that I don't read that book. Days that I don't think about God's timing, but instead think about my own. Even days that I know it is all in God's timing, but it is still hard. Those days can be challenging. Right now we are in the waiting game for our Jamaican adoption. In Canada, there is a required year wait between adoptions so that the child you have adopted has time to bond and form an attachment to you before you bring another child into your home. I think that is a great idea. Just not for me :) You're probably thinking I am impatient (and perhaps I am). But there is a reason! You see, Chloe, the one whom we just adopted in July of 2011, was first our foster daughter whom we have had since birth. She is now almost 3 years old, way past the required year of bonding. So we have to wait until April to even start the homestudy (we had to beg to get it started thats soon), then are allowed to send our dossier by July of 2012 (if our homestudy is completed by then) then wait for everything to go through the Jamaican court system. Adoption there can take up to 2 years or even more, so sometimes...when I think about all the waiting...I get frustrated. Especially when you know kids are waiting around in orphanages. I know I shouldn't let me mind go there, but it is true. For example, if we adopted a 4 year old, who potentially was in the orphanage since birth, our child is spending all these additional years in an orphanage, while we are just over here waiting! It drives me crazy sometimes thinking about it! But that is just me. Playing the waiting game. I know God has a time, a reason, and a purpose for everything, and I try to remind myself of that every day. We still have a long way to go in fundraising as well. Even if we wanted to, we couldn't move on to the next stage at this point anyways. But the time will come, and thinking about it excites me! Well that is my post for today. Kind of silly, a bit of a vent, but most people who read it have been through or are going through the adoption process themselves and probably know what I am talking about...haha I hope!