News from afar . . .

"Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land." Psalm 25:25

All of you fellow adoptive families know exactly what I'm talking about. We work SO hard to do all of our part in this process ... the literal mountains of paperwork, the finances, during all those months it seems the work will never end. Then we get to the "waiting period". At first we are THRILLED to be there because it's the part we've waited SO long to achieve. But often quickly that "high" settles and we wait and we wait having absolutely NO control in anything. At times we almost wish there was just one more bit of paperwork we could conquer to speed it up, but there is none. Sometimes during that process we're found guilty of even wishing time away, just to be over the long enduring wait. What a challenge that was for me, because I did not want to wish away time with my children here that I have home ... yet I found myself struggling some days to cope with the "here and now" as I anticipated what was to come.

So during this wait we long for bits and pieces of our child's life to be revealed to us. It can haunt us how much we've missed out on .. the things that will forever remain unknown to us. I was not anticipating just how hard that would hit me when we received our babe's referral. I'm kind of a photo-nut! I absolutely love to take photographs, create with them, preserve them. The earliest photo I have of our babe is at nine months old. While I am SO grateful for that, fully realizing some children won't even have a baby photo ... it still was a loss and I needed to just accept it as that.

As families have traveled and shared pictures with us, now I have received a few more "bits and pieces" of our babe's life. Each one is an amazing gift. Someday she will have these and be able to see that she was treasured, loved and nurtured ... even during this time we are apart. So this morning when I had new pics in my inbox ... yeah!! ... so happy ... and sad. Sad of what we're missing out on, but SO happy to see every tiny detail.

You'll remember from an earlier post we sent a doll to our babe. So these pics were of the family that delivered it. From one picture you can tell that the doll passed the "taste test" and is being enjoyed! :)

Yes indeed ... "Like cold water is to a weary soul is good news from a distant land." How we long to travel to that distant land ... Lord willing, it will be soon.