Still....Waiting!!!!

Well, our paperwork is currently in Washington, being certified and after that it will be returned to our agency and on to China. Waiting and praying, not unlike being a parent at all! For those of you who may not know, this is my mom. This whole process of adoption has made me think so much about what it means to be a parent and what kind of parents we are. You could seriously drive yourself mad trying to "do the best for your children". This post is really about how thankful I am for my parents. During our homestudy we were asked to describe our parents. I thought "lady? seriously? we haven't got ALL day!!" How do you articulate that, in one paragraph!? All I could say was.."I think my parents would have been wonderful adoptive parents." That was, in my opinion, the best compliment I could have given. I mean, you have heard all of the compliments..."world's best dad", "#1 MOM", "Mommy Dearest" (well maybe not that one? lol!) None of those seemed to cover it.

My parents have always had a way of making people feel loved and special. My friends were no exception. They would treat them like part of the family. When I got married they treated my husband just like their son. I have watched my mom (she is a hairstylist) make each and every client, who sits in her chair, feel like the most important person in the world. I have watched her close her salon to give those suffering from cancer, privacy while they are having their head shaved and being measured for wigs. I even watched her, as she fought breast cancer herself, encouraging others, and continuing to work throughout her treatment.

All of this to say, I spent the last week thinking about what kind of parent I am to my children. I thought a lot about what I would like to change, and what I would like to try to do better. I have worries and fears about this new addition to our family. How will she know she belongs? There will be the obvious differences in how she looks and how we look. I remember the Dr. Seuss book "are you my mother?" I think I need to do a revised addition where the crane actually says "why yes! I AM your mother!!".

I start driving myself crazy thinking of different ways to handle these situations and then I realized what has been there all along... Jesus adopted ME! And not only did He adopt me, he gave me parents who allowed His love to flow through them to teach me how to love with His heart. The kind of love that has no boundaries. I know why we wait for this adoption. It's because God is changing us and preparing us.