Reckless Love

      Waiting is not something we do well.  We are an instantaneous culture with everything at our fingertips.  But God uses waiting to refine us, to grow us, to increase our dependency on Him.  After school ended in May, I wasn't waiting well.  I hadn't heard anything about Katie in months and our documents to adopt Katie were still sitting in China waiting for final approval.  So what do I do now when the room is painted and ready, the car seats and other items are acquired and sitting in the basement, work is prepared to accommodate me taking time off, and we have our names on a waiting list for a preschool?     In June I reached out to our agency to find a way to contact Katie.  They were able to put me in touch with a woman named Helen who lived in China and could offer her services to contact the orphanage, translate for us or even send care packages for a fee.  So I emailed Helen and we planned a video chat with Katie for July 1st.  I was nervous thinking about what I mi

      It's hard to believe we have passed the one year mark in our pursuit of Katie.  When this journey began, I thought the hardest part was wrestling with my decision to adopt her.  Don't get me wrong, that was a very important and very big part (and perhaps the most important), but little did I know what challenges were ahead of me.       I was ill prepared for the emotional roller coaster of the adoption process.  We had sort of walked into this process backwards.  We didn't discuss adoption for our family, do the research and decide it was right for us, begin the process and wait (or search) for the right child.  We had Katie's picture in our hand, our minds were made up and committed to Katie, but the long, arduous process of being approved to adopt had just begun.  As we sat down for our first meeting with our agency contact we were given a lot of information, including an 80 page handbook on adopting from China, and an estimated timeline for the process.  The ti