Adoption: Patience and Discipline to Do the Next Thing

What do you when you are at wit’s end, frustrated, tired, angry, sad, or confused?

You do the next thing.

The primary focus in my life right now is waiting to receive a phone call from our adoption agency telling me I’m a Mommy. I’ve been waiting a long time to be a Mommy – 47 years, to be exact.

We started this process in September of 2004. The timeframe to receive a “match” with a child in China was about 6 months from the time the Chinese authorities received our paperwork (called a dossier). Our dossier was received in China on April 28, 2005 – almost 9 months ago.

Any day now we should receive a call that we have been matched with our little girl, our daughter, the one whom God has hand-picked to come into our family.

What a joyous day that will be – finally seeing her little face and knowing that she is REAL – a real baby who longs to be held, cuddled, fed, loved, played with and made to laugh! Once we get that phone call and accept her as our daughter, we’ll travel to China about 2 months later to pick her up and hold her for the first time.

My brilliant deductions show that from “conception to birth” is 19 months – the equivalent of two biological pregnancies! This process has been very difficult at times, though incredibly exciting.

One big lesson I have learned in life that has helped to get me through this process is this:

Sometimes things aren’t fair. Sometimes things are hard. Sometimes it seems like you just can’t take one more day. The key is to put your hand and your life in God’s hands –and do the next thing – the next right thing.

Call it discipline, call it faith, call it perseverance, call it patience, call it determination.

Call it tough – but very rewarding.

If you are at a point with something in your life where you just don’t think you can take it one more minute – just put one foot in front of the other – and do the next right thing.

Before you know it, you will be through the fog and into the sunlight. You will be rewarded.

I know this to be true.

I look forward to my reward: a sweet face, two big brown eyes, and little arms that reach out and call for Mommy.

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