The thing about a year...

In a year's time one can read the entire Bible, make a new friend, find their favorite pair of shoes, or channel Julia Childs and cook their way through The Joy of Cooking among many, many other things.

One year ago (yesterday) Wayne and I were sitting at The Cheesecake Factory in Baltimore waiting for White Chicken Chili and we saw the sweetest face. I cried because I knew that he was going to be ours. I told Wayne that I felt like we just saw our son for the very first time. And, of course, I cried some more. I knew I couldn't wait; that evening on our way home I sent an email to our agency requesting information. Thank God for smartphones. For real. What followed was a whirlwind of emails, telephone calls, late night Google searches on things like 'malnutrition, neglect, brain development', PAPERWORK, constant prayer and did I mention waiting and tears already? Good things happened then too, I met this friend and she drew me into a network of families that have been a constant support for Wayne and me. I LOVE these ladies and cannot believe that I haven't met not even one of them (yet).

The week before Thanksgiving (11.17.10) we were told, after weeks of waiting, that we selected to become the parents of one of the sweetest little boys I've ever seen. In. My. Life. I wish I could have bottled that feeling so that I could have it for times like now. Times like tonight when I'm trying really hard to trust in The One who carefully crafted out this plan for our family.

And then I saw this:

a stack of Bibles on the leveled remains of someone's home in Joplin, Missouri. A team of us had traveled there this weekend to serve the city as theY continue to rebuild and restore. I had been so focused on documenting what we were seeing for our church family back home and for the other members of our group that I was looking but not fully seeing. I was present but not processing. Going through the pictures this evening I had really looked at some of them to see exactly where in the Bible the pages had turned to. Ironically, it was turned to Exodus, the chapter that our Bible study group had touched on recently. And although I was too busy taking pictures during our time in Joplin to really fully process a lot of it I was blown away tonight when I realized that my waiting is so small in comparison to Moses'. Moses waited for the the moment of his vision to be the deliverer of Israel to come to fruition for FORTY years. So, tonight I'm thankful for God's perfect timing and for the knowledge that I will not have to wait for years for this season to pass.

Will you join me in praying favor over our process? Currently, Megan is waiting to travel again TO BRING HER BABY HOME while Tracy & I are still waiting for reports and affidavits.

So as I continue down this journey, I'm learning and growing and trusting and waiting.

It goes together like Peyton & chili

The following paragraph was written by Peyton this evening as a class assignment to write his favorite dish. I'm convinced that each year this kid writes about chili in at least one of his assigned prompts.

"Chili is my favorite dish. When I eat chili I eat it as fast as I can so it's so hot. When I eat the first bite it's like a bomb of delicious fire. Then I can taste the blend of meat, beans and tomato. I also like crackers in my chili." ~Peyton Porter aged 9