The Wait

We knew instantly that our daughter was in India. We left the consultation with the fertility specialist, a meeting that should have devastated any young couple wishing for a child. God met us in that moment and gave us the gift of hope. There are few things in my life that I’ve been more certain of, but as we left through the waiting room littered with weary-faced couples, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that our child was waiting for us halfway around the world.

For those of you who have not been through the adoption process, let me just tell you, the wait to bring a child into your home can be excruciating. It seems as though the average person spends a great deal of their day waiting on this or that. But what if that waiting is the wait for a child? What if days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months and months into years? The phrases, “God’s timing is perfect” and “God knows what He’s doing” are so easy to say, yet so hard to live.

Our 2 ½ year journey to our daughter would forever change my relationship with God. When you wait for something so special, so life changing, you learn to lean on God in ways that you might not have before. One of my favorite Bible verses has always been, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” (James 4:8) The closeness that I felt while walking with God through the adoption process is nearly indescribable. He continued to meet us where we were in every situation. Fear of the unknown was met with peace. Crisis was met with reassurance and pain was met with comfort. I’m thankful for the wait. It reminded me that God not only promises to go before us, but He also longs to walk beside.

Let me just tell you, God’s timing IS perfect and He does knows exactly what He’s doing. Faith, hope and love have taken on a new life for me. I tend to see those words differently now. Faith looks like walking in stride with the Father, no matter how difficult the situation. Hope looks like the realization that God has something planned for us that is so much greater than what we could have planned for ourselves. Love, our love for God and His for us, looks like a little girl with jet black hair that we held for the first time in an orphanage in India.