Today sweet waiting parents share about how the journey goes waiting for their daughter. I met this wonderful family at CAFO last year. The Superkids team met their daughter last summer in China. We cant wait to see them united as a forever family. Thanks Ben and Julie for sharing about the Journey
The Journey... Looking Ahead and Behind
When you come from the flatlands of Indiana,
you read about the mountains. You see pictures and videos, you hear stories,
and you create this image in your mind of what you think they would be like.
But when you actually go to the mountains, you see them in the distance and
they start small. Then they grow, and grow, and grow, and they become bigger
and more glorious than you ever imagined. This adoption journey is like that,
and we're starting to get closer to that glorious sight of seeing our daughter
in-person for the first time…the ultimate mountain view.
As someone who is still looking forward to
Gotcha Day, it is easy to focus on what is growing larger in the future.
That is the day that looms large in every adoptive parent-to-be's mind.
We've heard the stories from others, looked at photos, and read blogs.
The anticipation is building towards that day. We have created this
image in our mind about how wonderful that moment will be. We also have
been given an awareness that it will be hard.
As we prepare for this incredible moment when much will come into view,
we realize that everything is moving much more from what our eyes see and it is
working its way towards our hearts.
The journey towards that day is what we find
ourselves amazed by right now. We have formally been in the process for a
year now, and as we look back, we see the land we have traveled through and the
beauty that is found there. When we contemplate how our lives have
already been transformed even before meeting our daughter, we are
overwhelmed. Our eyes have been opened
to new ways of looking at the world, and they now discover a beauty that our
eyes passed over before. Things that held so much meaning to us in the
past seem trivial in light of new passions, and the things we never noticed in
the past now get us fired up.
On this incredible journey, we have crossed
paths with people whose hearts beat in rhythm with our own. Our adoption
journey so far has taught us that this is much more than us adding a child to
our family. We are joining a collective family of birth parents, caretakers,
advocates, social workers, and other adoptive families praying for millions of
children all over the world to be brought home. We were given the
privilege of joining that family, and we are being given the honor of bringing
an already beloved child into our home and giving that love directly to her.
We also get to be a part of the family of so many other adoptive children
through advocacy of the orphans who wait, walking alongside other adoptive
families, and praying and supporting millions of orphans in the world who still
need to be adopted. We have sat with other families whose hearts are
responding to the needs of these children, and we have joined the voices of
advocacy to share with the world how precious these children are. When we
hosted the Orphan Love Run, our hearts were to advocate for those waiting for a
home as much as it was to raise funds to help us bring our little one
home.
So as we approach the mountains, we are not
alone. We journey with people who have been to the mountains before, and
we are alongside others on their journey.
We look forward to walking with families as they are just now hearing of
the mountains, and they will begin their journey to see them for the first time
too. We look anxiously towards Gotcha Day, when we get to hold the
precious girl our hearts have been dying to meet. But we are also
grateful for the journey we have been on so far, as our lives have been
transformed in ways we never would have imagined through being a part of this
incredible adoption family.
