August

Well, it's August.  And in just a short 11 days a lot has happened.
I turned 28.
We had a meeting with our case worker (a brief home study update).
We went to the beach.
Mary Clair rolled over from her stomach to her back.
And we are 93rd on the waiting list!

93rd?!!?  How did that happen?

I can't help but wonder what this time next year will look like...
I'll turn 29.
Home study updates could be over and our case worker could potentially be coming to meet our kid.
Instead of going to the beach, we could be on a plane going to Ethiopia!
Mary Clair could be walking.
And potentially no more waiting list.

Oh the joy and excitement of the unknown.

Until we bring our child home from Ethiopia, I'm hoping to take in each month, day, and moment as it comes and try not to skip any part of this process.  I guess the process prepares you for the glorious unknown of the future.

And speaking of the glorious future, it kind of gets me thinking...do I, in hope, look forward to perfection, to heaven, to seeing God?  This life we live is full of suffering, waiting, groaning.  But for those who believe there is hope!  We hope for what is unseen and that wonderful moment when all of creation will cease groaning and be redeemed.  There is liberty in redemption!  Now that's something to look forward to.

¹⁸ For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time 

are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

¹⁹ For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

²⁰ For the creature was made subject to vanity, 

not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same 

in hope,

²¹ Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption 

into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

²² For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

²³ And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, 

even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

²⁴ For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: 

for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

²⁵ But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

Romans 8:18-25