Adoption Update!!

So, this was a very interesting Mother's Day for me.  This was my second official one as a mother (third if you count the year my little tater tot was bouncing around in my tummy) and it was quite different from last year.  To be able to snuggle with my squishy toddler and look into those little proud, bright eyes as she handed me a scribbly crayoned picture of Hello Kitty that she had worked so hard on and focused her very best one-year old skill-set on, and to know at the same time that I have another daughter who has not known the love of a family and was spending the day alone in her crib is a crazy feeling.  This part of the process (the waiting) is hard, I won't sugar-coat it.  But at the same time, I remember taking Kate to her first doctor's appt. after she was born and hearing that she had already gained a half of a pound, and having the startling realization that every parent has about how quickly this wonderful part of life goes by.  I was still bleary-eyed from lack of sleep and sore from my c-section, but I remember thinking that I don't want to wish a single second of this season of life away.  I don't want to spend any of this precious time focusing on the next stage....when she would be crawling, when she would say her first word, etc.  I just want to enjoy every bit of these sweet moments God is giving me. 

During an "adoption pregnancy" this is a harder pill to swallow, because of course I long for the moment I will be able to hold my other sweet daughter in my arms.  But I don't want to wish away a single moment of this time either.  I know that God is teaching me so much through this process, and I am thankful that He is using this time to prepare my heart to become the mother that He wants for her.  I am so humbled that He has chosen me to be the mom of both Kate and "little sister in China!!"  God is sovereign over all, and there is a purpose in the waiting.  God could bring our daughter to our doorstep tonight if He wanted to, but He is not choosing to do that, and I want HIS WILL, not mine!!  We are called according to HIS purpose, and He has stacked the deck exactly as He wants it......who am I to question His ways?

So after weeks of waiting......GOD HAS FINALLY PROGRESSED US TO THE NEXT STAGE OF THE ADOPTION PROCESS AND WE COULDN'T BE MORE EXCITED!!!!  :-D

Our home study was approved last week, and earlier this week it was mailed off to US Immigration!!  For those of you who are interested in the process with China, we will wait about 4 weeks and then receive our finger-printing appts.  Once they are approved we will be cleared by the US to adopt a child from China.  When this happens, all of our paperwork will be sent to China to begin the process there.  Our social worker tells us that we should be about 3 months away from being "logged-in" in China right now, at which point we can be matched with our daughter at any time!!!  SO EXCITING!!!!!!!  (After the match, it will still be about 6 months until we travel, but we can actually go ahead and send her a care package in the meantime, which I am ELATED about!!!  What in the world do you send to your daughter that you have never met before, by the way??  A million possibilities run through my mind daily......)

While I am so excited to see a picture of my baby that I can hardly sit still, I am also humbled and amazed at what God is teaching Kris and I during this process.  I am awed at how God is showing His Glory by putting together all the pieces needed to work out His plan for our family, and very curious to see how He will continue to provide for this, both emotionally and financially.   In my Bible study today, God led me to 1 Cor.13:4....."Love is patient......"  Wow......this is seriously patience on a different level than any test I have experienced to date, but if this is what God is teaching me right now, I darn-well want to learn it!! 

So, I must keep telling myself.....Love is patient, love is patient, love is patient.......  :-)

Thank you all for your prayers and for sharing in this journey with us!!

-allison

Jesus is

Romans 11: 17-18

“But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you.”

I am continually awed, humbled, and amazed each time God reveals to me the similarities between earthly adoption and heavenly salvation. In my daily Bible study I am now in Romans chapter 11 and the past week I have been studying the above mentioned verses. To give a little context, Paul is speaking to the gentiles (the wild olive shoot) about their own salvation (being grafted into the olive tree, which represents the Jews), but reminding them not to be arrogant because their salvation is from Jesus (the root), not themselves.

In the same way that I have been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, elected by Him to be spiritually grafted in to His spiritual family as one of His chosen people, so our great God and King, Jesus the Christ and our Messiah, has selected our daughter in China to be grafted in to our family as one of us. How amazing is our Holy and Righteous God! Just as we gentiles have no right to brag over our Jewish brothers about what God has revealed to us, I have no right to brag about adopting! Just as being a gentile Christian doesn’t make me better than a Jewish brother, adopting doesn’t make me better than anyone else or more “spiritual” (whatever that means)! EVERYTHING IS FROM THE ROOT! FROM CHRIST! FROM THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL! He does it! He owns it! He causes it! Jesus is the reason! Jesus is the answer! Jesus is the catalyst! Jesus is the motivation! Jesus is the driving force! JESUS SIMPLY IS!

Jesus . . . simply . . . is.

So, what now? I am just a guy trying to live my life through the faith Jesus has given me along the path He has set forth. Do I have the ability to lead my family well? No, but Jesus does. Do I have the strength to survive and help my family through whatever trials may come our way? No, but Jesus does. Jesus is the root; the source. Once Jesus hit my heart with that truth and awakened my soul to show me just a portion of who He is, I had to act. It is my joy to follow and obey. It is His glory that is revealed. Everything, all of this, is about Jesus and for His glory.

Romans 11:36

“For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.”

To quote the great philosopher and eloquent orator herself, my precious little girl (and soon to be big-sister) Kate, “boo-yah daddy, boo-yah.”

In Christ,

-Kris