Hey. Guess what? Yup. We’re still waiting.
Guess what else? Today could be the phone call. I could be writing this and be totally interrupted by a phone call from Melissa telling me the news we’ve waited 8 1/2 months to hear.
You know what else? I’m o.k. if it’s not today. It will come. I can’t emphasize just how much of a journey of faith that this particular thing has been. It’s come to redefine me both as a father, a man, and in so many other areas. Sombody called me crazy yesterday (Melissa, I forgot to mention this to you!) when he was asking where we were adopting from and how long of a flight it would be. I wouldn’t have it any other way and wouldn’t want to be surrounded by greater of a family and looking forward to someone who I know it going to be beautiful.
If you want a good story of God’s faithfulness while we’re waiting for the next chapter to kick off, our friends the Gibsons have been through alot getting their daughter - check it out: http://www.zoiegibson5.com. It’s worth the read.
‘I wish it need not have happened in my time’, said Frodo.
‘So Do I’, said Gandalf, ‘and so do all who live to see wuch times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.’
No adoption news here…move along. 
However, I did catch this interview on NPR’s story of the day podcast:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91964687
It’s Kim Phuc’s story. She was the girl in the famous photo in Vietnam that was taken the summer before I was born. She’d just got out a bomb area and her clothes had been burned off and she was screaming and running down the road. I vaguely remember seeing the photo in school for the first time, but I recognized it after I saw the article. It’s a good read. Enjoy.
While we wait for another week to start, we got out this evening for some ice cream and saw some friends at Carls unexpectedly and it was great to catch up a little bit.
I had a couple of thoughts or things that are just bugging me lately that I wanted to comment on.
On God’s Will
The sermon this morning was on Colossians 1:24 and suffering. It was great, but the jist of the talk was on the honor of suffering. My mind had drifted a little bit after church to the idea of God’s will. There have been a few times in my 35 odd years on the planet that God has taken me or family in an entirely different direction that I had guessed. I’m beginning to find that God’s will often doesn’t make sense logistically at the time but that I often discover the meaning so much time later and that many of the events of my line seem to be on a line, a direction. Later I look back and couldn’t see it any other way.
As we sit on the brink of our lives taking another shift with a phone call, I find I’m there again. We’re honestly doing something that doesn’t make too much sense but I’ve not felt more alive or excited or just happy ‘to be in play’ than what I do right now. Our summer has been in flux because we’ve not really been sure when the call would come and there have been a number of projects and things that have gotten shifted due to changing priorities depending on the day. I’m beginning to get caught up on stuff, but there is a growing anticipation for what’s coming.
Politicians as Christians
I found out this weekend that a magazine I care about (Relevant Magazine) is doing interviews with both major political canidates. Honestly, I’m looking forward to it. One of the things that really drew my disgust in 2000 and 2004 was the treatment of Christians as a voting block and that they could manipulate and turn based on a speech. In other words, it seemed like a lot of politicians ‘found Jesus’ as soon as they got in the national spotlight and many leaders bought it hook, line and sinker.
I’m looking forward to the interviews because I think the Relevant folk will ask the appropriate questions and business as usual won’t fly. The winner of my vote will have a christianity that reflects in his character and will be consistent across the board. I’m not expecting a perfect individual, and in fact, I would welcome someone who make mistakes and own up to them. However, paying lip service to faith will not go. I have a feeling I’m not alone.
Hey everyone. We’ve been waiting. Still.
Hopefully we’ll have some news soon, but in the meantime, there’s a traveling group on their way to Ethiopia to pick up their children.
If you know me, I’ve always been a big fan of calms before storms. There is a certain beauty in the wait that I really want to grasp onto; that for all the years that we’ll have our daughter, these are moments we’ll remember as well.
Mental note for myself: we were at an outing yesterday for parents of ET children in Bloomington at State Farm Park. I had brought some bubbles with me and they were a huge hit with the older kids. We’re going to remember to bring some to ET with us.