Stand firm...Waiting

Ephesians 6:10-13 "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm."

Stand...firm.

This is hard. It's a different kind of hard. This kind of waiting that is. My third trimester with Joshua has nothing on this. I was uncomfortable but my little guy was pressing himself tightly against me. I carried him everywhere I went, and I knew it! There was also a due date (something I will never, ever take for granted again...) Sometimes we could see the imprint of his leg through my belly. This kind of waiting is a unique kind of hard too. It's not a sad kind of hard but exciting and yet very emotional.

We are the parents...we are the advocates...of our precious child who presently is on the other side of the world. And we love him more than words can describe. And it could be months before we travel.

Here's a quote from our portal message today: "Families can expect to travel to China within 6-12 weeks of the DS-260 delivery date, assuming that the process is seamless and no holidays impact or delay travel."

The thought of it being months is hard. I'm hanging onto the hope that it could be sooner because it is possible. It's impossible for me to not hope for sooner.

With that said, a good friend counseled me to be patient with God's timing and not miss the present. So the Scripture above is what I'm claiming to help me do just that. Stand firm. We've done everything folks. There is no more paperwork on our end. Here's what has to take place between now and GOTCHA DAY!

Presently our DS260 (documents for his visa) are in Guanzhou!

• We await for our Article 5 to be issued to the China Center for Children's Welfare and Adoption
• at which point we await the issuance of the Travel Invitation (TI)
• AND THEN WE TRAVEL!

Oh how I wish I could place dates and make this a timeline, but we can't.

We can stand firm and intercede for him. We can trust our sovereign Lord Jesus. We can thank Him for the beauty in today and ask for beauty in Daniel's day. Let me share a little of the beauty now...

We talk to Joshua all of the time about Daniel. When people ask us if he understands that he has a brother, we reply with a kind of "I don't really know." But recently, he's acted more and more like he understands (I mean as much as a 22 month old can). He's shown us on more than one occasion that he understands the relationship between photographs of people and actual people. He even tells me about memories with people when he sees a photo of them.

He carries the little homemade book above and tells us "dis...an-el (Daniel)." He knows which items are his and which are Daniel's. Today when I laid him down for a nap, he pointed to the other crib and again said "dat an-el's bed." I told him, "You're right. Dear Jesus we pray for Daniel right now. Amen. And when Daniel comes home, y'all are going to sleep in here together."

 

 I am now the happy driver of a minivan! I love it! It has the stow-and-go seats which makes for tons of storage space, which obviously I've already used.

 

Here is a picture of our new favorite...the Bob-da-bidder-ent.

Thank you Lord for today and that every sunrise brings us one day closer.