High Expectations!!!

Our experience with Mia’s adoption was nothing short of awesome!  I mean that in the very sense of the word.  Awesome is defined as extremely impressive or inspiring and a synonym would be “breathtaking!”  This is exactly the experience we had!  It is a time in our life that we still look back on and are inspired and our breath is taken away on many occasions as we try to explain this unprecedented event in our lives.  I recently came across a quote from Job, that he spoke to God at the end of his life changing trials, that describes well our feeling after we brought Mia home.  He states in Job 42:5 “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.”  Through all the terrible things that happened to Job as he lost his family, possessions, and then his health he finally gets to the end of the tunnel and his statement to God was NOW I have truly experienced you!  This was a man that was righteous, feared God, and turned away evil but yet he hadn’t truly experienced God until this life changing event.  That is where we are!  We thought we had experienced God but now we know that we hadn't, at least to the extent that we have now. It isn’t just because we have adopted, but because of the entire process that we have progressed to this point.  It was the agonizing wait for every step to come to fruition.  It was the silly displays of happiness by jumping around with our children, like children, every time a step was conquered.  It was the joy of watching our child being carried to us in a train station in a foreign land.  It was the sorrow of our daughter being inconsolable because she wasn’t attached to us yet.  It was the delight in witnessing and being a part of the bonding process.  It was the eyeopening of being on the other side of the world, yet being treated with loving kindness even though we looked and acted different.  It was the experiencing of the Gospel in action!  You may be thinking that we may have the bar set too high for this second adoption.  But there is no possible way for that to be true.  I’ve thought the same thing.  I’ve even agonized over the thought that our expectations are so high that we are doomed to be disappointed.  But, you see, thats where God steps in!  As we found out last time, this is bigger than us.  This isn’t about us filling some void left by the loss of two children.  This isn’t even about us rescuing some helpless child.  No, this is all about what God can do when we step out of his way and follow behind we he begins to lead!  Praise God we are doing it again starting at 8:50 am on our first leg of what is a very long trip.

~Written by Jason