Right Now is What Makes Waiting So Hard.....

Scott told me today that our adoption fund has $8,000 in it waiting for the next bill.  WHAT?!  How does this keep happening??  I know I've been slow to keep posting every gift that keeps raining down on our heads.....they've just keep coming...some little and some big....but I had NO IDEA the balance had risen to $8,000!!  

We MUST praise God when He brings Himself to our attention like that!  And I feel like I MUST renew my commitment to celebrate each evidence of His hand as He moves His people to gather up the ransom for our little people.  Watch the Floodgates Ledger....it will be updated soon to reflect the current graciousness of God!!  The money has stopped occupying my mind...now it's my babies that I can't stop thinking about.

Our status right now is the "dreadful wait."  I've read over and over again on adoption blogs about how the real hard work of adoption begins as the paperwork is done and you're waiting on a referral.  I'll admit, I scoffed at that deeming it silly since logically, nothing changes.....except EVERYTHING changes!  If you've been there you know... now I know.  When you're put on the waiting list, a big accomplishment has been realized.  All the work of collecting paperwork and obtaining elusive government seals is over and your precious file folders are empty.  You've watched God bring in scads of money that have enabled you to pay half of one of the biggest bills you've ever encountered....the one that scared you so bad you had to do some serious wrestling with your soul to say "yes" to the call.  You've read and researched and prayed and a new culture has become precious to you......all of it's struggles and hardships have become your struggles and hardships.

By the time our paperwork had winged it's way over to Ethiopia and put our names on the waiting list we were different people.  We trust God in a new, precious way.  We love, I can't explain to you how much, LOVE Ethiopia. Everything about our own life looks different....we come to decisions from a different place than we used to.

The biggest change....the thing that makes the WAITING the hardest part.....is what I know is happening right now.

Right now my babies are hungry more days than they aren't....while I'm counting calories because it's so easy to eat too much....

Right now my babies have a sick mom or dad or both.  Their parents are facing the most desperate times of their lives and having to make horrible decision.....while I'm up to date on all my preventative medical care, have insurance to pay for my care and have a cupboard full of medicine.....

Right now my babies are facing a future at an orphanage where no one know them or loves them yet....while my house is filled with family and friends.....

Right now my babies are facing diseases that are fatal only in a country like Ethiopia.  Any day they might contract malaria, TB or hepatitis and be on the verge of death before they find their way to me... while I don't spend a moment worrying about my American children being in danger from those illnesses....

Right now my babies are facing the effects of malnutrition, either in utero or as a child.  They're little brains are trying to grow and form synapses without the proper amount of fat....their little bodies are trying to work without enough iron, protein, calcium, vitamins and minerals in their systems.....while I've got supplements in my cupboard to make up for the things I may have missed in my diet because I eat too much junk food....

I really could go on and on.  As soon as we received the email that our dossier was accepted by the government of Ethiopia, my consciousness was divided in half.  All the things I knew were going to happen in the future, suddenly became things of right now.  Everything I do makes me think of the counterpart in Africa.  I cry while I make dinner because we have so much and I can't stand leftovers.  I worry about the weather getting to cold at night in Addis Ababa and check the forecast every day.  I'm sick to my stomach for that sweet Momma over there who's doing everything she can for her babies and it's not going to be enough.....it's inevitable...and then they're going to become my babies.  This isn't how it's supposed to be.  As much as we anticipate the joy these little people are going to bring into our lives, it will be pain and the ugly effects of sin upon this world that will bring them to us.  Living with those right nows every day is what makes the WAITING the hardest part.

So while we wait, we pray....for strength and care from God's hand for our precious Ethiopian family to make it through unscathed in spirit.

While we wait we keep reading and getting ourselves deeper into the community of people who are seriously caring for orphans.  My girlfriends and I are saving money right now to join Project Hopeful in their  Hope+ Sisterhood.  We will be sponsoring a HIV+ woman in Ethiopia who is struggling to get healthy, support her children and keep her children from becoming orphans.  This is where orphan care needs to go to make a long-term, world-wide difference.  International adoption is the band-aid, caring for families in extreme poverty is the cure.

While we wait we're also celebrating what God has done and thanking Him for choosing us.  Check out the video Ordinary Hero just released...you may see someone you know around the 2:30 minute mark!

This has by far, hands down, no comparison been the best thing the Florida family has ever done.  Any Florida you ask will tell you that without giving it a second's thought.

If you want to see Jesus like you've never seen him before, if you want to feel you're heart beating hard in your chest because you KNOW you're right in the thick of what God's doing, if you want to stretch and grow in ways you didn't think possible......then join us....

say YES to adoption!!!!