We're still holding steady at #20. I realized a few days ago that we passed the 11th month mark on the wait list over a week ago. WOW. Time flies even as it drags on.
Last summer I began to feel an itching desire that, quite truthfully, I never expected to ever feel. Out of the blue I decided that I could live with moving back to Iowa. I told that silly voice in the back of my mind to be quiet, for that has never been a part of our plans. After a few weeks this thought continued to buzz in my mind and I finally told Emerson. We began to explore what that kind of move would mean for us and grew in our confidence that what we were both feeling was the Lord's leading as our ambiguous dreams became refined and reshaped.
As we began to look toward the future, the timeline continued to be fuzzy because of, well, this other pretty huge life decision we had made and were in the process of realizing. Fear nestled deep in my heart about what moving would mean for our adoption. We had come so far, invested so much of ourselves, had seen God work so clearly in beautiful ways, for me to even consider messing with all that. So in his gentle goodness, God gave us a nudge. Not the type of nudge I really felt inclined to embrace, but an affirmation that the time to move is in the quickly approaching summer.
What I really didn't want to mess with was our home study. So much time, so much paperwork, so much scrutiny. Turns out, home studies are only good for a year and have to be updated anyways, so well, we did all the paperwork, again (though not as much), a few weeks ago. But this is actually a really good thing, because the more complete our paperwork is here in Missouri, the less time and expense it will be to have it updated again in Iowa. Also, as we began going through our home study update process our social worker informed us that the agency recommends that families not move for 6-12 months after bringing their child home. Which totally makes sense seeing how pretty much everything in their life has been altered and changing things again too quickly could disrupt their forming of attachments to our family. As I wrote in the last post, the time estimates have increased and we likely won't have our son home until next winter. So basically if we don't move before, we won't move for a while. Which makes me think, maybe God is giving us an opportunity to be rooted in a community before bringing him home.
And so we're preparing to move and God is giving us bigger dreams that we've had for a long time as we look forward to establishing a new life in Iowa. Emerson is applying for teaching jobs and we'd appreciate prayers for encouragement during this time of waiting to be wanted by a district. Looking for a home is taking a backseat until we know what town he'll be teaching in.
I was having a day of feeling sorry for myself when so many families have their kids home from Ethiopia and we are still waiting and why didn't we start the process sooner or take less time with our paperwork etc...
When I had a bit of an epiphany in the shower (because, hey, where else does a stay-at-home mom have a quiet moment to think?!) There were slightly less than 2,000 kids brought home from Ethiopia last year. And usually I get all mopey like, "All those kids! So many, but not ours..." When I realized, that is not very many. It's a few hundred less than the year before and when compared to the population of the United States is hardly a fraction of a percent. In fact, that's not even half the population of my hometown. But you know what? Of those few kids scattered throughout the whole country one just came home to a family in my tiny hometown, a family that goes to my parents church and has even been to Family Camp at Hidden Acres. I am convinced God is preparing a community for us in Iowa, and grace upon grace, our son will grow up in Iowa with another little boy adopted from the same country in Africa.
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